


Saved (Re-Written!)

by b4rd-of-l1f3 (knight0fd00m)



Series: Scourge Sisters (Re-Written) [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Abuse, Abusive Relationships, Accidental Death, Alternate Universe - College/University, Amnesia, Bulimia, Car Accidents, Criminal trial, Eating Disorders, F/F, Flashbacks, Healthy Relationships, Minor Character Death, Multi, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Harm, Surgery, Violence, oh here we go
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 03:38:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 15
Words: 35,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5896651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight0fd00m/pseuds/b4rd-of-l1f3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>====> Terezi: Enter<br/>Terezi transfers from her college to get away from an abusive ex boyfriend when she meets a whole new set of friends. Soon after, her ex finds and attacks her. Her entire world is flipped on it's head, and her world is becomes a flurry of court dates and flashbacks.<br/>====> Vriska: Enter<br/>After meeting a strange blind girl at school and saving her life, her world is also flipped upside down. Now, her life suddenly revolves around this blind kid that drags her back into a past she doesn't want to remember.</p>
<p>-------<br/>I re-wrote my original version of this because I knew I could do so much better than that. There are some plot differences and different details and even some new stuff thrown in too!</p>
<p>(as of May 2016) This fic is currently on hiatus!! I will be finishing it though!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Terezi: Enter

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Whether you've read the original or not, I hope you enjoy this version!

====> Be Terezi

 

I hated new places.

Granted, the weather was rather nice and the breeze carried a distinct smell of a nearby cherry tree, but I didn’t know where much else was. 

At least the cherry tree smelled nice.

I swung my cane back and forth in front of me and I could  _ sense _ everyone parting away from it like I was parting the Red Sea or something. While I’m pretty great, I’m pretty sure I can’t do that. 

I could practically feel their stares, their curiosity and pity for me. The new girl, the blind girl. 

They told me it was a small campus, not more than 2,500 students and you could walk from one end to the other in less than ten minutes, so I deducted that everyone knew just about everyone, and if they didn’t know them they’ve at least seen them before. They knew I was new, but that was okay. I don’t need their pity.

Based on the shuffling around and the calls of orientation leaders, I figured most of the crowd around me were freshman. I was no stranger to college, but it was my first year here so I knew where I was going about as much as the freshman in the crowd. 

I almost felt bad for the upperclassmen because they had to avoid the freshies in this crowd that was still parting before me like I was some new version of their god.

I guess it was harder for me to get around because I was blind, but I wasn’t helpless. One of the orientation leaders had shown me around this morning and I was just orienting myself with the campus at this point. I knew exactly where my dorm, a single in the more expensive residence halls, was in comparison to the dining commons and the coffee shop, I was just looking for the library and the class buildings at this point. I knew where they were, I was just timing how long it would take me to get there. My phone was pretty fancy and would say aloud the time if I hit a button or asked it to frankly, and it was also keeping track of the time it was taking me. Not that I needed it to, my internal clock was pretty good at keeping track of how long I’ve been walking.

The only downside to having a room in the residence hall with the absurdly high tuition rate that my mother was generously paying for because she was a famous prosecutor and had the money was that it was pretty far from everything else.

I was re-going over the checklist of what I had to do when someone tapped me on the shoulder rather harshly. I turned around and tapped my cane against the person’s ankle as he said, “You’re in the middle of the fucking walkway, can you move aside? We’ve got a friend in a wheelchair we’re trying to get through.”

His voice was familiar, but it was hard to place from where. Probably high school, it was a common college to go to in this area and I probably met him there. He also sounded irritated, along with not giving a single shit about the fact that I was blind and idly tapping my can against his ankle. 

So while rolling my eyes behind the trademark Pyrope glasses, I obnoxiously stepped to the side with a wide grin on my face, “Well aren’t you friendly!”

He didn’t say anything for a moment before practically growling, “I’m glaring at you.”

“I kinda figured. I’m blind not stupid,” I laughed.

His sigh was irritable at the very least, “Look, I’m just trying to get my friend to registration, he hasn’t checked in yet…”

“It’s alright Karkat, she did move…” a more nervous voice spoke up from behind him. 

Karkat? Didn’t I know a Karkat? 

A memory prodded to the surface and I immediately shoved it into a corner in the far, dark recesses of my mind and told it to stay.

Instead of thinking about that, I leaned forward on my cane toward Karkat, “The nervous one is right shouty, I did move. Now is there anything else I can help you with before you waste any more of my time?”

Another voice, this time female, started laughing, “I like this one! She isn’t completely full of shit or doesn’t tries to use their disability to get pity!”

“Do you include yourself in those categories Vriska?” Karkat snapped. 

If she had a disability of some sort, I was curious as to what it was. I listened carefully to see if I could hear anything that would give it away. I heard faint clicks as she moved, but I wasn’t sure what those clicks were. 

“Of course not Karkat, what kind of bitch do you take me for?” she snickered.

“A huge one!”

I cackled at their bickering. It was pretty amusing, “Calm down shouty, and if I’m correct, I can call you shorty too!”

“How in the actual fuck would you know how tall I am if you can’t see?” he barked.

“Don’t have a rage aneurysm there Karkles, I have my ways of telling these things!” I grinned widely, showing off all my perfectly straight teeth. Gotta love two years of braces right?

“Shut the fuck up you bat!” he yelled.

Both Vriska and myself burst out laughing. “That’s a new one!” I snorted, still doubled over laughing. 

“Come oooooooon Karkat, let’s go. I think Taaaaaaaavros is getting uncomfortable with your shouting,” Vriska drawled after she finished laughing.

“Since when did you give a shit about how comfortable Tavros is?” Karkat spoke through gritted teeth. Poor kid was going to have a heart attack by the time he was 21.

“I don’t, but we’re going to miss registration if we stand here aaaaaaaall day.”

The wheelchair bound kid was silent, but his unease was permeable in the air. I shrugged and grinned again, “I’m going in the same direction, I think I might just tag along with you guys.”

Karkat began to say something in response, probably to object, but Tavros spoke up first, something I didn’t expect, “I’m sure we could, uh, always use a new friend. Right Karkat?”

He grumbled something that even I couldn’t understand, and I heard Vriska shrug with the telltale clinks of metal along with the clicks that I finally realized were metal on metal. 

Prosthetics then?

Karkat started walking forward and Tavros started to wheel himself forward while I fell back to walk next to Vriska and poke at her left arm. It was definitely metal.

“Can I help you whatever your name is?” she spoke irritably, but I really didn’t care.

“Terezi. Also, prosthetic arm eh?” I smiled. “You’re fucked up like I am!”

“Yeah well, at least I don’t flaunt it!”

“It’s  _ really _ hard to hide the fact that I’m blind Vriska, but I’m pretty sure it’s pretty hard to hide a robotic arm also,” I laughed.

“It is, but at least I don’t go around showing it off!”

I cackled. These guys were going to be a fun bunch to be around.

 

_ Beep beep beep beep! _

The smells and sounds of my dream faded into the incessant beeping of my alarm, signalling that it was time for me to get my ass out of bed and get ready to go to class.

I slammed my hand onto my phone, which was sitting on the bedside table charging, and turned off my alarm. I relied on my phone a lot for a blind girl, mostly my alarms though.

I laid there for a few moments, trying to wake up. I could remember bits of my dream, but not a lot.

In my dreams I was still blind, but I could smell and taste colors. It was really odd, but I came to accept it when I was much younger.

I know in this dream that I had last night I could definitely hear Vriska’s voice, and the shouty boy Karkat’s.

In the dream, the girl had blue eyes, black hair, and a black shirt with a distinctive cerulean blue symbol on it that I couldn’t make out. Just because I could smell the color didn’t mean that I knew what it was. She also had a grey jacket and a metal arm. I could smell the light colored ceramics in the inner workings as well.

The boy had hair that smelled whiter than snow, and had cherry red eyes. When I was younger, I used to love the colors red and teal, and in my dreams I just adore the taste of cherry red.

He was also wearing a long-sleeved black turtleneck with a grey symbol on the front.

I sat up, rubbing my head. These dreams had no significance, I don’t know why I continued to think about it. At least  _ he _ wasn’t in it.

Of course, thinking about him brought back memories of the feeling of each blow he would land on me. Resisting was futile, but that didn’t stop me from trying. Every word he spoke was an insult, and while I love a good debate, he left no room for discussion. I could try, but again it was futile.

I sighed, shoved the covers aside, and swung my legs over the side to stand up. I transferred here not just because the pre-law program was better, but because I needed to get away from him. Going to a different city was the best course of action I could see.

I got up and walked over to grab my things for a shower, relief settling into my chest when I remembered that I didn’t have to worry about him anymore. He was gone, and I didn’t have to worry about him finding me.

I brushed my teeth and took a shower, taking extra time in the shower to relax from the unpleasant memories from this morning. Some people have asked me how I can take care of myself without the ability to see, and I’ve had to explain time and time again that I’ve been blind since I was eight years old, and I’m now almost twenty. I’m used to not being able to see.

I asked my phone, which I had named Pyralsprite, the time and it told me that it was it was 7:45AM, I had fifteen minutes to get to class if I wanted to be on time. Of course I did want to be on time, punctuality is important.

I took the elevator down, not really wanting to walk down the stairs this early in the morning with an absurdly heavy backpack, and walked outside. It was nice out again today, but it smelled like rain was on the way.

I walked to the other side of campus, not really rushing or anything. I was in no hurry, I had plenty of time to get there.

I walked into the classroom that my Criminal Law class was taking place. I was glad that my credits transferred without much of an issue, so I was in this class with the rest of the sophomores. 

“Tereeeeeeeezi!” I heard Vriska call out from the other side of the room from where I walked in.

“Vriska?” I asked curiously. She didn’t seem to be the type that would take something like Criminal Law. In fact, I got the vibe that she’d be taking anything but.

“Come here, sit with me,” she laughed. “I don’t know any of the other dumbasses in this class.”

I nodded slowly and walked over, my cane clicking as it connected with the desks to tell me that they were there. I sat next to her, having known where she was by the sound of her voice. I dropped my backpack on the ground next to me with a thud. That thing had to weigh at least twenty pounds.

“Why do you look like a trainwreck this morning?” Vriska asked, curiosity evident.

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t, I’m just curious,” she said. At least she was straightforward about it.

“Well it’s none of your concern Serket.”

“Come oooooooon Terezi! I wanna know!” she whined.

“Too bad,” I stated with a tone of finality.

She sighed and the professor started class. I clicked on my recorder and listened to him talk.

Something told me that this year was going to be interesting.


	2. Vriska: Enter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of right now I'm almost done with chapter 13, so I'm going to be posting chapter updates daily until either I'm done or until I get up to where I'm still writing!   
> Hopefully I'll be done though, I really want to show this to you guys.

=====> Be Vriska

 

“So you’re telling me you don’t even know where this girl is from? You practically know everything about everyone Nepeta,” I groaned, tapping my foot eight times impatiently. 

Nepeta shook her head, her red hair bouncing from under her hat. She was short but she had muscle and could probably kick anyone’s ass from here to her ancestral home in Asia in a few minutes flat.

Except for me of course, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve in a fight.

“I think Equius may have known her in elementary school but he isn’t sure beclaws he moved everywhere and you know that Vriskers.”

“Didn’t I tell you not to call me that?”

“...Right, sorry.”

Equius was my neighbor, but he didn’t become my neighbor until high school. His mom was in the marines and died shortly after he moved to Skaia, right next to me. 

I sighed, “So you have no idea?”

“Well, she might be from Prospit, but we don’t know. Equius thinks he knows her but isn’t sure, and isn’t sure whether or not she’s from Prospit or Derse,” Nepeta shifted from foot to foot. She was afraid of me, which she rightfully should be. I was a scary bitch!

“Alright. Hmmmmmmmm…” I wondered, nodding.

“Why are you so interested in her anyway Vrisker-Vriska?” she asked, her head tilted to one side.

I smirked, “Just doing some reconnaissance.”

She sighed, “Whatever you say. She’s in my math class so I’ll purrobubly end up getting to know her.”

“Excellent, let me know what you find out!”

She shook her head but reluctantly agreed. I said my goodbyes as her boyfriend, Equius, showed up and started to question me about my arm: how it was, if I was greasing it properly, if I was going to trek to the other side of Skaia to have his dad look at it and do maintenance on it. His father designed it, assembled it, and installed it himself. It was a new model that Equius himself wasn’t familiar enough with to do maintenance on himself, it was so new. I had gotten it only at the beginning of summer when the previous model I had jammed up so bad there was no fixing it. 

That had been soooooooo frustrating!

I answered his questions with the most bored expression I could muster. I knew how to take care of my arm already, it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had a robotic arm!

I really should never had ended up with this stupid thing anyway, but that’s not something I liked thinking about!!!!!!!!

I managed to get away from them to walk over to the usual table in the dining commons. This was usually where Karkat, Tavros, and I sat along with sometimes the two I had just been talking to. Today however, I found that Terezi was sitting across from Tavros, who was laughing at whatever it was that she had said. He wasn’t even laughing nervously like he did with me, how dare she!

However, this was the fourth time I had seen her today. It was almost five o’clock and I’ve seen her everywhere. 

I also found that she lived on the same floor as me, just down the hall actually. We left for class at about the same time around noon today. If she had class with Nepeta, she was probably headed for Math at that time. I was headed to Psychological Science.

She had been in my Criminal Law class this morning too, which didn’t surprise me. She had this way about her that reminded me of a lawyer.

To everyone’s shock, I was a Criminal Justice major. Figured it’d serve me some good in the Navy when I joined. Nothing seemed better to me than to sail the seven seas, I did like pirates after all. However, I figured doing something good with my life was a good option. I didn’t have the sick sense of justice that Terezi seemed to carry, but I did have a point to prove to my mother. I was going to prove to her wrong.

But that’s a story I also did not like thinking about, so I didn’t.

I grabbed some food on my walk over there and sat down next to Tavros. Without looking up, Terezi said, “Hello Serket.”

“Pyrope,” I greeted. I wondered for a second what gave me away, but then I remembered that I have a bunch of metal on my left side. It wasn’t exactly subtle to those who had really good hearing. Which, being blind, was a given.

Or if they looked at my left hand, which I didn’t bother covering because I didn’t want to have to worry about wearing gloves all the time and I didn’t care enough about people noticing to worry about it.

Tavros was munching on some vegetarian dish, Terezi had pizza, and I had some unknown pasta dish in front of me. Usually the dining commons had some decent food, usually. Today was not one of those days. It was the first day of classes, you would think that they would have some decent food to “welcome” us back to campus or to give the freshman and transfer students a good impression. Nope, not today.

Karkat walked over and plopped himself in the chair next to Terezi with a loud huff. Once again, Terezi didn’t look up but asked him, “What’s wrong with you?”

“Why do you care?” he asked, glaring. I’m pretty sure that glaring at a blind girl was futile. 

“Figured it was worth asking. You seem to be in a perpetual state of fury, but it seemed more so. Who’s the guilty party?”

Karkat sighed, “I was talking to a former friend of mine on the phone right before I got here, and apparently he’s transferring here. Said something about having to take care of some unfinished business to take care of along with the art program here being better or some shit.”

I shrugged, “This is bad why?”

“Cause he went and fucked the girl I liked behind my back.”

Terezi winced, which did not escape my notice. I tilted my head, there was something going on here, and I wanted to know what it was. Did Karkat know her?

“Happy now Vriska? That’s the end of the goddamn story, can we change the fucking subject now?” Karkat growled, sounding even more pissed off than usual.

Terezi didn’t speak a word, just hung her head over her plate for a moment before standing up, grabbing her stuff, and leaving. I watched her walk off, she was in a hurry to get away as if something was after her.

“Why did she leave like that?” Tavros asked, his nervous face looking even _ more _ nervous.

I shrugged and Karkat crossed his arms over his chest, “Like hell if I know. I never knew her well, just enough to have a crush on her in ninth grade.”

The connection slammed together in my head, she was from Prospit! That’s where he was from and he went to school with her. That’s also why Karkat was twice as angry with her, he actually knew her. Also he apparently held a grudge on her if his best friend slept with her behind his back.

This girl keeps getting more and more interesting!

I looked over at him, “Who was this former friend of yours again?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t, I’m just curious.”

He groaned irritably before turning his entire body to face me. He trained his eyes on mine, which was unnerving to say the least, and his bright red eyes narrowed at mine. 

“His name is Gamzee Makara, and he’s the worst fucking ball of horseshit to ever crawl into existence.”

 


	3. Terezi: Freak the fuck out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay trigger warnings for non-con and domestic violence in the form of flashbacks.

Chapter 3: Terezi: Freak the fuck out.

 

I knew I had known him, I knew I had. I didn’t want to think about it, but I knew him.

I rushed back to my dorm, bumping into people in my haste, something that almost never happened, but I needed to get back to my dorm. Now.

I could feel my breathing quicken in panic and I hurried even faster. I would not break down in public.

I managed to get back before I lost my composure, slamming the door shut and leaning against it. I slowly slid down to the floor, curling up into a ball as a flashback hit me like a train.

_ It was just another night. I had to go over to his house otherwise he would raise holy hell on me. I personally did not want to have to deal with his rage. _

_ I knew what he was doing was illegal, but I couldn’t do anything about it. He would literally kill me. _

_ I had at least some measure of self preservation, even though my sense of justice was screaming that he was guilty. _

_ I walked into his house, which by the fact that my cane kept hitting things and by the smell, it was trashed like always. I walked upstairs into his room, where he welcomed me with open arms. I smelled the bottle of rum and the pipe in his hands before he even got to me. He crushed me in a hug that was too tight, and I thanked the godless sky that he wasn’t sober. _

_ Maybe I would get out of here without any new bruises or having to limp. My cane wasn’t designed to support weight, it was designed to make sure I didn’t run into anything or trip on something. _

_ I knew the routine by now. I sat on his bed, he set down his intoxicants (which was still highly illegal and I despised him for it), and he walked over, pushing me onto my back and kissing my neck. _

_ I was glad I was blind, that way I didn’t have to see his  _ disgusting _ face as he did what he wanted, violating me in the worst ways. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, it was either I let him do what he wanted, or he would either give me so much shit about it I’d have to let him to get him to  _ shut up _ , or he would just beat me. Either way, it hurt more than just letting him do what he wished with me. _

_ I felt bad for Karkat. I knew he had had a crush on me at the beginning of this school year, almost seven months ago, and I had had a small crush on him. This was until I was hanging out with Gamzee one day, and he convinced me to date him. I didn’t have much interest in him, and I really didn’t like his drug use and while he promised he would stop, he never did. It made my inside twist in disgust. _

_ I felt the guilt, the disgust, and the pain as Gamzee did away with me. Did he always take this long? I just wanted to go home. _

_ My mom could never know about this. If she knew, she’d have the police on him immediately, but it would be too late. He has his way of knowing things and would have me hanging from a tree like one of my scalemates in my front yard before they even found him. _

_ He finished with me, and I got up to try and dress myself. I felt disgusting, violated, and like a fraction of myself was missing. _

_ He was furious that I got dressed without his permission of course, and he beat me unconscious, which was nothing new but I was hoping to avoid it. _

_ I woke up in the hospital, another thing that wasn’t new. Gamzee was running his thumb over my hand and he was talking to the nurse. Had this been a few months prior, before shit hit the whirling device, it would have been comforting that he was showing affection after beating the hell out of me. _

_ “Good to see you awake!” the nurse said cheerfully. “You took quite a fall there Miss Pyrope! Mr. Makara here says that you fell down the stairs?” _

_ It would be no use to tell the truth, “Yeah, something like that.” _

_ Because not matter what I did, no matter how much I told myself I hated him, I couldn’t put him in prison. I couldn’t hurt him. I couldn’t put my life in danger. I couldn’t tell the truth of the matter. _

_ Because of the things he used to tell me, I loved him, and that’s what I hated myself most for. _

 

I was sobbing by the end of the flashback, which seemed to have taken a half hour at least, and I curled tighter into a ball. After a few more minutes, I heard a knock on the door.

“Go away whoever the fuck you are!” I yelled hoarsely, my voice cracking pathetically.

“Is that how you treat people who try to come help you? Sheesh I know I’m not usually nice to people but goddamn.”

I lifted my head, why the hell was Vriska at my door? I didn’t even know how she found me in the first place let alone why she was knocking on my door.

“What do you want?”

She scoffed, “I can hear you from my room two doors down.”

“Well I’d be sorry to inconvenience you but I’m really not.”

She sighed, “I came over here to see  _ why _ the fuck you’re crying so loud everyone on the floor can hear it.”

“Why do you care?”

“Humor me.”

“No!”

She groaned, “Okay, how about a mutual exchange of information then? You tell me what’s up and I’ll tell you why Tavros is wheelchair-bound.”

I thought about it. I wondered why he was stuck in a wheelchair, yes, and I sensed that there was a guilty party in the matter, but was that really worth telling someone that I’ve known for a day what happened? I didn’t get these flashbacks often, and I could lie, but I’m pretty sure she could figure out that I was lying. She seemed sharp like that.

“Fine,” I groaned. Standing up, I dried my face with the towel that hung on the hook next to the door, and opened the door. Without any warning I spun on one heel and walked back over to my bed and sat down on it. 

I heard Serket walk in, shut the door, and plop down at the foot of the bed, maybe half a foot from me.

“Care to explain why you care what’s wrong with me?”

“I don’t, I’m just curious. Now about that mutual exchange of information…” she surely sounded curious, so she’s telling the truth there.

I sighed, fidgeting with the cord that was attached to my cane. I really didn’t want to tell her, but I had already let her in, “You know that friend of Karkat’s that he was mentioning?”

“Yeah? What about him?”

“Well, he’s my ex-boyfriend… and he was incredibly abusive. Beat me, made me sleep with him, manipulated me, threatened to kill me, the whole figurative nine yards. I am still reeling from it. I transferred here to get out of Prospit and  _ away _ from him.”

“Well shit,” she said with disbelief.

“Yeah. Your turn.”

She sighed, her voice lowering, “Okay, me and Tavros were a thing for awhile in high school. I teased him and messed with him a lot yada, yada, yada. One day I was shoving him around and I shoved him off the sidewalk and into the parking lot. He got hit by a car.”

Her voice got even lower as she continued, “Paralyzed from the waist down because the fucker was speeding, Tavros almost died too. He left me of course, but didn’t press charges. Honestly I still feel really bad about it.”

I would have stared at her, but ya know, I can’t see so it would have been pointless. So instead, I nodded. She was the guilty party in this case, but she got away with it. She got away with paralyzing her boyfriend? 

“To be honest with you, if I were him I would have pressed charges,” I said plainly. “But he didn’t, so your guilt is the only price you pay. You’re lucky it’s the only price you pay.”

She shrugged, her robotic arm clinking, “Yeah yeah, at least he isn’t mad about it anymore. I still tease him relentlessly, but I still feel bad for almost killing him.”

I nodded, “You better.”

Sighing, I finally lifted my head and turned to face her, which was polite in most conversations I have noticed even though it was pointless for me to be looking at someone without eyes that function, “Since we’re being incredibly honest with each other right now, when Karkat told us that Gamzee intends to attend to unfinished business, I think he means to follow through with his last threat.”

She inhaled like she had an idea of what I meant, “What threat?”

“His threat to, and I quote, ‘To motherfucking end me.’”


	4. Vriska: Advance or Abscond?

Chapter 4: Vriska: Advance or Abscond?

 

“So tell me, how did you guys meet anyway?”

I was drilling Terezi for more information in the dining commons the next day when we were going to get dinner. We were sitting by ourselves while we waited for Karkat and Tavros to get here. Nepeta and Equius actually decided to come eat with us today as well, so they would be here soon themselves.

Terezi just shrugged. It was disappointing that she wasn’t teasing or up to her usual antics like she had the first day and a half I had known her and had gotten accustomed to. She was visibly upset about the whole thing and was acting more sullen and sad instead of crazy and clever.

It was disappointing, and not nearly as fun.

“We were friends in middle school. He went off to be friends with Karkat for awhile, and then he came back and talked me into dating him,” she munched on a bite of her apple, her head still turned downward. “Not a very interesting story.”

I had learned by now that if I nod, she’ll hear it. The curse of having long hair I guess, so I nodded and she scoffed, “If I had known he was such an asshole I would have had my mom move us across town sooner. She had already wanted to move, but I could have pushed her sooner.”

“So your entire family moved because of one guy?” I took a bite of the pizza I was eating. It was better than the food yesterday, but it wasn’t much of an improvement.

She turned her head up to make it look like she was staring daggers into my face, “He started harassing my sister to get ahold of me. My mom doesn’t know exactly what happened, and she never will, but I basically asked if we could move to get away from people in the neighborhood that were harassing me. I graduated, and then we moved.”

She lowered her head again and started biting at her apple again. She licked the juice up from it like a cat or something, which was really weird. 

“Who is your mom again?” I asked. She had mentioned at one point there her mom was a famous prosecutor, I think.

“She’s known as Neophyte Redglare, or Prosecutor Redglare, because she’s never lost a case and she’s known by her red glasses and piercing stare. You don’t wanna be at the end of her stare, it’s scary as hell,” she said plainly, taking the last bite out of her apple and setting it down. 

“And you would know how her stare is how…?”

“I didn’t go blind until I was eight you ignorant fuck,” she practically growled.

I groaned, “Like hell if I knew that Pyrope, you never told me.”

She sighed, pushing her pasta around with a fork. Thankfully it was in a bowl, otherwise it probably would have ended up all over the table. She didn’t say anything for awhile, and the silence was laden with her sadness. There was story behind her blindness, and I wanted to know what it was.

However, before I could ask, she spoke up again, “Why do you care about this anyway?”

“Why do you keep telling me about it?” I retorted. 

“I haven’t had anyone even close to resembling a friend since I was in high school. I had a friend named Sollux at one point freshman year, but he ended up too messed up over the death of his girlfriend, Aradia, to be friends with anyone for the next four years and counting.”

My blood turned to ice and seemed to have stopped flowing through my veins. She knew Aradia? 

She couldn’t find out what happened with her. She thought I was guilty for shoving Tavros in front of a car? She would flip her shit over what happened with Aradia. She could never know.

“You stopped talking, did you know her?” Fucking shit, she’s sharp even when she’s upset. Nothing get’s past her.

“Yeah, I did. We didn’t like each other much,” I managed to keep my voice steady, which was really great because I really didn’t need to be showing weakness right now.

“Why?” she asked, putting down her fork and lifting her head to face me.

“She thought I was a bitch, and I thought she was full of it.”

She rolled her eyes, “I didn’t know her very well, I was closer to Sollux.”

I didn’t say anything, only nodding to give a reply. I really, really didn’t want to talk about Aradia anymore. While I felt less bad about what happened to her than I do Tavros, what happened with her was far worse.

“How did you know Aradia if you are from here?”

“She’s from here initially, we grew up together,” my voice was cracking up. Shit, abort mission.

“Why are you so choked up about her if you guys didn’t even like each other?” Terezi had that sadistic smile back on her face, oh God.

I shook my head, “I didn’t like her no, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel bad that she died.”

“Enough to be choked up about it?” she asked, leaning forward. 

I groaned, “Mutual exchange of information. I tell you why, and you tell me how you went blind.”

“Deal,” she grinned, leaning back in her chair.

I sighed, “I was driving, without my seat belt like a dumbass, in Prospit to visit Tavros’ family at the beginning of my sophomore year. It was almost my birthday, November 8th, and his family wanted to get together for it for some god awful reason. He had moved from Prospit to Skaia when we had been younger. 

“Anyway, I was driving, alone, and a car came out of fucking nowhere and I tried to hit the brakes, but my car sucked and she slammed into my right side. I went through the left window. It was deemed she was at fault for not looking before crossing, but her parents still charged me with vehicular homicide because she died at the scene. I was found not guilty. The girl who died was Aradia Megido.”

Terezi watched, with her jaw dropped open. She closed it, opened it like she was going to speak, and then closed it again. She honestly looked so  _ shocked _ like it was news to her that it was my fault that she  _ died _ . She should have been able to deduce that by my reactions alone. 

I felt guilt and regret churn in my stomach, “I lost my arm and my left eye went blind, I was lucky to survive. Her chest was crushed by the steering wheel.”

She opened her mouth to speak again, closed it, and then finally spoke, “So  _ that’s  _ how she died. Sollux wouldn’t tell me. And so  _ that’s  _ how you lost your arm. I didn’t know you were blind in your left eye though, that’s news to me.”

I rolled my eyes, which she was never going to see, “Yeah, well, I don’t make a habit of making that fact obvious. Just for your information, the lense on the left side of my glasses is the same lense they use in sunglasses to keep my eye from hurting from the sun.”

She nodded. Both of us were ignoring our food at this point, my appetite was gone and I could probably say the same for the blind girl.

Shrugging, she spoke up again, “My turn. I was in a bus accident when I was eight. I got a hell of a lot of glass caught in my eyes because I had had my face pressed up against the window when the truck slammed into the bus. Almost all the windows shattered, and I got a lot of glass in my eyes.” 

She lifted her red glasses to show me the dashes and dents of scars from around her eyes, and even in her eyes. She lowered the glasses back down, “A girl named Feferi died. Her best friend, Eridan, kept screaming and screaming. He had a huge chunk of shrapnel in his side I’m told, almost cut him in half. I couldn’t really hear him very well because I was screaming pretty bad too. You would know, getting your eyes damaged to blindness hurts pretty bad.”

I nodded, “Yeah it does. Also, I think I heard about that from Eridan. He moved over to Skaia and I had a small thing with him, I think he said something about it once.”

“So that’s where he went, I hadn’t heard from him since middle school,” she shrugged.

“He’s still rich and as pompous as ever.”

“Hasn’t changed at all has he?”

“Nope.”

With that, Karkat walked over and slammed his backpack onto the chair next to me with a loud  _ thump _ , “Hello you miserable excuses for humanity, Tavros has to do some research for Animal Behavior in the library before he can eat so he won’t be here.”

“Okay, where’s Nepeta and Equius?”

“Stuck in line.”

I looked over at Terezi with my good eye as Karkat went to go get himself some food. She looked a lot more relaxed than she had before we had talked, despite everything we talked about.

I sure as hell didn’t feel much better.


	5. Terezi: Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for domestic violence/general violence.  
> Enjoy guys!

I was walking back to the dorm at the stupidest time of night. I had had a night class, Geological Science, and then I had gone to get something to eat because I had been absurdly hungry for some reason.

It was about 10:30 at night, and I was halfway back to my dorm. Not too far, maybe another five minutes if I didn’t run into anyone? I shouldn’t, there was some campus event going on tonight.

I didn’t think I would run into anyone. I didn’t think I would run into anyone at all, it was late and I didn’t hear anyone walking by me or talking. 

I didn’t even hear him until I walked right into him.

“There you are sis, I’ve been looking for you.”

I scrambled backward, panic singing notes higher than heaven in my blood as every instinct told me to  _ run _ as fast as I could  _ as far away from here  _ as physically possible.

“What are you doing here you stupid clown?” I forced myself to speak evenly through gritted teeth, and somehow it worked.

Gamzee’s hand came down on my shoulder, “We didn’t exactly leave off on good terms last time we talked, I was hoping we could get our reconciliation on there motherfucker.”

I opened my mouth to speak but adrenaline had seized my vocal chords and I couldn’t speak. If I could  _ move _ I would be running, but despite the literal fear surging through my veins I couldn’t move my feet.

“Well what’s it gonna be Terezi? Am I going to have to follow through on all the unpleasantries that I informed you of the last time we fucking spoke?”

That snapped my limbs out of the deep freeze they were in, and the next thing I knew I had smacked my cane upward and hit him in the head before swerving around him and running toward the direction of my dorm. I wasn’t using my cane, but if I tripped and fell I was doomed.

My lungs burned and I could hear him tailing me, yelling, “Get the fuck back here motherfucker!”

“Fuck off you piece of juggalo trash!” I yelled back at him. I knew the path back to my room by heart by now, and at this pace I was going to get back there in at least two minutes flat.

That is, if I didn’t run out of breath or trip and fall.

Those two minutes seemed to take years when you have a insane juggalo no more than ten feet behind you, but I ran almost face first into the door to the building, scanned my ID in record time to unlock it, and almost ripped the door off it’s hinges to get the door  _ open _ .

I didn’t have time to take the stairs without use of my cane, so I ran straight for the elevator, slamming my hand on the button more times than probably necessary as I could hear Gamzee trying to break down the glass window of the door. Vriska had described most of the building to me with a smug tone. I don’t think she realizes that I don’t care what anything looks like since, ya know, I can’t see it.

The door miraculously opened quickly and I threw myself into it, pressing the button for my floor a few times before slamming my palm against the close door button.

The elevator door shut at the same time as I heard the glass on the front door shatter.

The trip up took ages, but once it got to the third floor I ran straight to the nearest room I knew to the elevator and slammed my fists against it over and over again.

“What the  _ fuuuuuuuuck _ do you want!?” Vriska yelled in rage. “It’s the middle of the night!”

“It’s me damnit! Let me in I’m running for my goddamn  _ life _ right now!” I yelled back, continuously pounding on the door. I could still hear Gamzee’s shoes hitting the stairs, he was almost here.

“Stop hitting my door, I’m unlocking it,” she growled irritably before she opened the door, grabbing my by the wrist, and hauling me inside her room. She slammed the door behind me and locked it. 

Gamzee yelled my name as he got to this floor and started pounding on Vriska’s door. Vriska grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me to face her, “Care to explain who the fuck that is?”

“Gamzee!” I gasped, panting for air.

She ran her left hand through her hair, the metal sounds almost comforting to hear right now, cursing under her breath.

“Okay, I’m going to kick this fuckers ass from here aaaaaaaall the way back to Prospit,” she growled.

“Vriska don’t be stupid he’s always carrying juggling pins and you’re unarmed! He’ll smash your head open!” I yelled, exasperated. She couldn’t go out there, he’d kill her to get to me. He was a mad man, and if he was willing to kill me, he would kill her too.

She tossed her hair back, “I’m rolling my eyes Terezi, did you forget that my left hand is made of metal? On top of that, I keep a switchblade in here.”

“You realize that switchblades are illegal right?”

“Are you really going to complain right now?”

That shut me up. 

“Come on out Terezi! I know you’ve been hiding the fuck out in there!” Gamzee yelled through the door and the unmistakable sound of pins hitting wood crashed into my eardrums and I nearly jumped six feet up.

I heard Vriska growl almost animalistically and she pulled her desk drawer open somewhere nearby, pulling her knife out and flipping it open, “Get the fuck out of here Makara! I might just have to fuck you up!”

“I just wanna get my communicating on with Terezi sis, not going to lay a hand on her, now open the fucking door!” he yelled back at her, the hit of a snarl in his voice.

“Yeah, right, you assmunching clown!” I yelled, my voice surprisingly clear.

I heard him kick the door, “Let me in!”

“No!” We yelled in unison. 

I held my cane in both hands, ready to hit him with it again if he were to somehow break down a solid wood door. When I heard it crack, I knew for a fact that he could. My cane wouldn’t do much, but it could be a distraction.

“I swear to God if you break my door I’m going to stab you!” Vriska snarled.

Her door cracked again. I had mistakenly forgotten how strong he was, even though he had broken my arm at one point. 

I sighed. I shouldn’t have come here, I should have just hid in my room and waited for him to come to me. Now I have put Vriska in danger, and he was going to hurt her too. 

I took a step forward toward the door, and Vriska grabbed my shoulder, hissing, “What in the actual fuck are you doing?”

I wrenched my shoulder out of her grasp, “I’m not gonna let him break your stuff and hurt you too. It’s me he wants, not you. I might as well accept my fate.”

“Pyrope you don’t take me as someone who would just give up like that. I’m not going to just let you go out there and get beaten!” she didn’t sound mad per se, she almost sounded more worried than anything else.

I shook my head, “I’m not giving up, I’m going to give it a good fight. I thought I would have gotten here in time for him not to know which door I went into, but he got to this floor first. How he knew which floor I was on is beyond me.

“I didn’t mean to drag you into this mess, and for that I’m really sorry. If  he tries to hurt you, do what you can to fight him off but  _ do not _ let him touch you. He’s incredibly strong.”

She shook her head, saying, “It’s too late now Terezi…” as I turned and walked to the door.

I opened it and Gamzee spoke loudly, “That’s my girl, now give me a hug.”

I could  _ hear  _ the sadistic smile on his face. I knew he had his arms out, I could sense that much. Instead of giving him a hug, I punched him square in the middle of the chest.

He staggered back, but as soon as he hit the wall he shoved himself forward back toward me. Before I even had the chance to move he had already slammed a pin on my shoulder, effectively breaking it.

I cried out at the same time Vriska did, and I cursed everything I knew about religion that most of the floor was gone for that campus event.

I heard Vriska surge forward with a cry of rage. She shoved me aside, and stopped in front of me and yelled, “Get out now or I swear to God I’ll stab you 64 times. Leave her alone.”

His hair shifted but I couldn’t tell what direction he moved his head. He got quiet after all that yelling, which told me that he was going absolutely insane. You didn’t want him to alternate between yelling and soft spoken. If he does that, you better run for your life.

“I’d like to see you try sis,” he said quietly, and before I could warn her to run, Vriska cried out her rage and rushed forward. Gamzee honked almost boredly and swung his arm down and connected with Vriska’s right arm, breaking the bone with a loud  _ crack _ !

I suddenly wished that she was left handed.

She screamed in pain, dropping her knife and dropping to the ground to what I assumed was to grab her knife. I didn’t pay much attention after that because I was jabbing my cane in Gamzee’s face. He honked louder this time and took a step forward, raising his arm with a shuffle of fabric. 

That was about the moment that Vriska found her knife and stabbed Gamzee in the leg.

He screamed and slammed his pin down on her head, cracking her skull with another  _ crack _ ! She didn’t didn’t make a sound beyond a unconscious groan and a  _ thump _ as her body hit the ground.

“Vriska!” I cried out. “Gamzee you piece of shit! The prosecution will see you hanged!” 

I swung my cane and slammed it into the side of his head, swung back, and slammed it against the other side of his head. Thankfully I was right handed, and my broken shoulder was on my left.

He screamed in rage and as I heard him raise both his pins over his head, somehow still standing despite having a stab wound in his leg. I knew he was going to smash my skull in, and I tilted my head  up to face him, showing no fear on my face. He was going to kill me and I didn’t care anymore. 

It was at this moment that I heard our Resident Assistant, Kanaya, come in from the stairwell, drop her bag, and run forward yelling, “Enough!”

Our RA suddenly shoved me backward and shoved Gamzee’s head into the wall while kicking Vriska’s knife away. I stumbled back into the doorway and I heard Gamzee’s pins hit the carpeted floor.

“Stop!” Kanaya yelled again and I heard her pull out her cell phone and dial what I assumed was security. It was then that I heard Gamzee’s fist connect with her face with a grunt and he started running toward the stairwell. 

“Oh no you don’t!” I took off running after him. He was fast, but I was smaller and faster, so I caught up to him quickly. I jabbed the end of my cane into the back of his left knee and he cried out in pain. Good, I actually hit him and I hit the leg that Vriska stabbed.

He fell forward and I heard him fall straight down the stairs.

I panted from exertion, my blood still singing with adrenaline, “Kanaya! Please tell me he’s unconscious at the bottom of this stairwell!” 

She ran over and leaned over the railing, “He’s definitely down for the count. Go sit with Vriska, she’s also going to be down for awhile. She’s not bleeding too bad, and it doesn’t look like you are either.”

I nodded. My shoulder had been hurting before but as my body slowed down, the pain became more and more prominent. I walked back over by where Vriska had hit the ground and kneeled by her, using my cane to hold myself upright. It was definitely not designed to do that, but I have leaned on it so many times that I know it could hold my weight for short periods of time.

I could hear Kanaya speaking quickly to the security office on the other line, barely concealing her emotions that I couldn’t quite read. Was it panic? Was it anger? Was it both?

The pain was making me dizzy and I swayed and for a moment wondered if I was going to pass out. My shoulder was definitely dislocated and broken that was for sure.

Security arrived first with paramedics hot on their heels. I heard them confiscate Vriska’s knife. She was going to be pissed.

They managed to get me off the ground and into an ambulance, with Vriska being loaded into the one next to it. I heard them handcuff Gamzee to his stretcher, but by the way he breathed he was definitely unconscious.

I couldn’t move my shoulder, and every bump the ambulance hit on the ten minute drive to Skaia Memorial Hospital sent shockwaves of pain through both my shoulder and my arm. 

At some point during those ten minutes I passed out from the pain, static coming in from the edges of my senses and soon overtaking everything.

 


	6. Terezi: Visit Vriska

Chapter 6: Terezi: Visit Vriska

 

The sling was going to get annoying really quickly, but I was still grateful that I was right handed. I was walking down the hallway of the Intensive Care Unit. Even though I was of no relation to Vriska, and she had only been out of surgery for what they told me to be about five hours, she had saved my life and they were going to let me visit her.

It was hard to read Braille on the wall when you're only working hand was the one holding your cane, so one of the nurses was showing me the way to her room.

It was a quiet walk, except for when she asked me how I was feeling.

“I feel fine. My shoulder doesn’t hurt,” I said simply. My shoulder was numbed up with the pain medication they had been giving me every so often, so I felt fine there.

“I meant emotionally silly,” she said, sounding concerned. “That had to have been a lot to go through.”

I flinched as my emotions that I had been ignoring had come to the forefront of my attention. My posture sagged and I spoke softly, “Yeah, it was.”

“You talk to the officer later today right? To tell him everything?”

“Yeah.”

“Your mom told me that you’re a pre-law student right? Does it make you feel any better that you’re going to be bringing him to justice?” 

“Yeah, but it’s not going to be easy. I’d rather be the one doing the questioning, not the one being questioned,” I swung my cane back and forth, occasionally whacking the wall. I was probably moving it too quickly, but I didn’t care.

“I can imagine, but think of it this way. When you’re a big prosecutor you’ll know what it’s like to be at the witness’ stand,” I could hear her smile in her voice.

I nodded slowly and she stopped me and turned me to face what I assumed was a doorway, “Here we are, she’s still out but you can sit with her for awhile if you want. Just hit the call nurse button if you want to go back to your room.”

“Okay, thanks,” I said to her as I walked into the room and found a chair by the bed. 

I didn’t like the smell of hospitals. They smelt sterile and like chemicals. It was no different in Vriska’s room. I couldn’t barely smell her familiar scent. Yes, people have a scent to them, no that’s not weird.

The nurse had told me before we left my room that Gamzee had fractured her skull and broken her arm in two places. She had to have a lot of surgery just to put everything back together.

Gamzee, however, was down the hall handcuffed to a bed with a concussion and a stab wound to the leg. He was barely injured compared to her. He wasn’t even after her in the first place, she was only defending me.

Dread sat heavy in my stomach, if I hadn’t gone to her room then she wouldn’t be lying here unconscious all broken up. 

It made my chest hurt, how she let herself be injured to protect me. She never seemed to be the type to care about anyone but herself and maybe the people she hurt. Based on what she’s told me over the last week, that has been a grand total of two people.

I leaned on the railing with my good arm and listened to her breathe. It was slow, but at least it was there. It was slower than someone who was, you know, asleep, but it was still breathing and that’s what was a relief. 

My chest ached, I didn’t want this. I didn’t want her to get hurt in the process of my ex trying to get to me. Yeah he would have easily killed me, or worse, but I didn’t want her to get hurt in the process of me trying to get away.

I knew why I cared about her, but I didn’t want to think about it. I refused to think about it.

I ended up falling asleep leaning on the railing and dreamt of something that smelt like blood and fear. It wasn’t pleasant, and it was centered around Gamzee.

I could feel myself running, and I realized it wasn’t just a nightmare, it was a flashback of last night.

I dreamt through the motions of last night, every single moment magnified in slow motion and when I finally woke up I felt someone’s hand brushing my bangs aside.

I jumped and sat upright, which earned me a scoff from Vriska, “Well good morning to you too Pyrope.”

I relaxed immediately, “Fuck Serket, I didn’t realize it was you.”

“Who else would it have been?”

“Like hell if I know.”

She snorted and a nurse came in, “Miss Serket! It’s good to see you awake!”

“Yeah, yeah, I just woke up to see this bitch sleeping. How long was I out?”

“Eight hours.”

“Score! Eight on the dot.”

I rolled my eyes and Vriska laughed, “What? You know I love the number eight!”

I exaggerated myself rolling my eyes and she snorted, “In any case, how bad did he wreck me? My head hurts like a bitch.”

The nurse’s voice dropped a little in irritation, “Your attacker fractured your skull and almost completely broke your arm in two places.”

“Ouch, no wonder everything hurts,” she groaned. “This this IV a morphine drip?”

“Yes, it is.”

The nurse had barely spoken the words before Vriska had hit the button for the medication.

“Anyway,” the nurse continued. “Your prosthetic arm is fully functional, so that doesn’t need repairs, however you may need new prescription glasses because your vision in your functional eye may have been slightly more impaired.

“Okaaaaaaaaay, so where are my glasses?” Vriska drawled.

“On the table beside your bed.”

“Cool,” she snatched them up and put them on with her robotic arm.

Another nurse walked in and told the one that was already in here that Vriska’s family had arrived, and Serket just groaned in irritation, “Those are the last fuckers I wanted to see.”

The original nurse left to go get them and Vriska hastily explained, “Don’t be rude or anything to my mom, she’s a bigger bitch than I am and she’ll tear you a new one.”

I nodded slowly at her as the nurse returned with two other females with her.

“Hello Vriska, and you must be Terezi,” a woman with a lower voice said carefully. “A pleasure.”

“Pleasure to meet you Mrs. Serket,” I returned, hoping I wasn’t the only one who could feel the tension in the air thicker than humidity in a rainforest.

“Ms. if you could, my husband died years ago.”

I nodded, and a voice that still sounded older than Vriska but younger than her mother spoke up, “Hello! My name is Aranea, Vriska’s older sister.”

“Hello,” I nodded. The tension did not ease at all, and it was unnerving, but I wasn’t going to let that show. “I’m Terezi, as Ms. Serket said.”

I heard her nod, and Vriska groaned and hit the button for yet more morphine.

“You’re blind right?” Aranea perked up. “Let me see your eyes!”

“Um, why?”

“Because I want to see if I can fix them. Although I’d need a complete scan of your eyes, but I wonder as a preliminary check if I could fix them,” she said thoughtfully. 

Vriska groaned again, “My sister is an eye surgeon. She wants to fix my left eye but I told her I wouldn’t let her anywhere near my head with a scalpel.”

I heard her neck crack as she spun her head toward her younger sister, “I would not hurt you on purpose and you know it!”

“You mean like my tarantulas? You dissected all of them!”

“ _ Enough _ ,” Ms. Serket yelled. Both of them fell silent immediately.

I didn’t really know if I wanted my vision back, I could live just fine without it. While it would make things a bit easier and I’d actually know what my friends looked like, I could live without it.

Despite this, I removed my red Pyrope glasses and turned my head toward where Aranea had last spoken, “Here, you can look.”

“Great!” she said pleasantly. She crouched in front of me and looked over my eyes, turning my head to one side and then the other, and I could almost hear the grin in her voice when she said, “I’ve seen eyes like these before. Provided the damage to your eyes doesn’t extend to your retinas, I could probably fix the rest. If it’s not your retinas, then it’s the scar tissue that won’t let you see right now. Are you completely blind or can you see shadows?”

“I’m completely blind. I used to be able to see shadows but not anymore. I had glasses before the accident, so they figure that my eyes just deteriorated from that.”

“Okay! Chances are I’ll be able to fix those for you,” she said cheerfully.

“Okay…” I trailed off before I could give her an answer on whether or not I actually wanted her to do it. I just met her today and based on Vriska’s reactions I wasn’t sure if I actually wanted her to go anywhere near my head with a scalpel either.

“You don’t have to decide right now, just have Vriska tell me when you decide,” she said simply before standing up from her crouch. 

I nodded slowly and she cleared her throat, “Although I should probably go over with you the specifics of the operation….” 

Before she got the chance, Ms. Serket walked over to Vriska’s bedside, too close to me for my own comfort, and growled, “Now, what the  _ hell _ were you doing with a knife in your room?”

She flinched, her hospital gown and sheets shuffling in a sharp movement, “It was for self defense for when I left the room at night.”

“And you found it necessary to stab her attacker why?” she snarled. 

“He was attacking my friend! What else did you expect me to do?” Vriska yelled indignantly.

“Use your damn fists! Or maybe call security like a sensible person!”

They argued back and forth right in front of me, and I sat there awkwardly. Aranea pulled me out of the chair and away from their familial argument saying, “They get like this a lot, don’t let it bother you. Mom just gets nervous around cops because of Dad, and she doesn’t want them digging around in Vriska’s business more than they already have.”

I nodded slowly, what on earth would their father do to cause their mother to be so nervous around police? Yeah there’s the whole police brutality thing, but that wasn’t it was it?

The arguing ended after a ridiculous amount of time with Ms. Serket storming out of the room, grabbing Aranea by the sleeve and pulling her out with her.

I walked back over to Vriska, who was seething. Her fury was practically tangible. She released her grip on the sheets and sighed, “I’m sorry about that, I told you she’s a bigger bitch than I am.”

“It’s fine, my mom’s going to yell at me too when she gets here,” I sighed.

“Why?”

“For not telling her about Gamzee.”

Vriska didn’t say anything for a moment before asking, “When does she get here?”

“Any moment now, she had to drive here from Prospit with my sister remember? What time is it?”

“A little after eight in the morning.”

“Yeah she should be here soon.”

“Do you want to go back to your room?” Vriska asked almost softly, like she didn’t want me to leave.

I must be imagining things.

I shook my head, “No, I’ll go back when they get here. The nurses know where I am.”

She laughed, “All this room is is drama and bullshit, why would you want to be in here?”

I shrugged and bit my tongue before I could say something that I would regret later. I couldn’t say it out loud, because saying it out loud would be admitting it was a real thing and I wasn’t ready for that. I refused to acknowledge it as a real feeling. 

I wasn’t going to let feelings like this in again, I refused. I wasn’t going to put myself into a position where I could be taken advantage of again.

Never again.


	7. Terezi: Have awkward family time

 

We sat there in silence for a bit, the silence first being awkward and then turning comfortable, waiting for my family to get here.

It couldn’t have been longer than twenty minutes when my family arrived and the nurse came to get me.

“Break a leg Pyrope, only not literally,” Vriska laughed as I rolled my eyes and left. 

I walked with the nurse, the same one that brought me over here, back to my room. I should have been in there this entire time, but instead I was with Vriska. The nurse quickly took my vitals, mumbling about how that should have been done hours ago, and left to go get my mom and sister.

I sat on the bed, nervously fiddling with the cord on my cane. Mom was going to be pissed that I didn’t tell her, and Latula was probably going to be mad too. I didn’t tell them what was going on when I should have. My mom was a prosecutor, she would have known what to do to keep me safe from him.

I guess I had just not wanted them to get caught in the middle between me and my psychopathic ex.

I tilted my head back up when I heard the familiar  _ click clack _ of my mom’s boots, and Latula’s voice echoing through the hall. She was never a quiet person, and neither am I. So why was I so quiet today?

Latula came in and walked up to me first, sitting down and wrapping an arm around my right shoulder, “Hey there rad girl, how’re you doin’?”

“Fine, I guess,” I had my head angled down as if I was staring at the floor. 

“You’re not being honest here girly,” she said, ruffling my hair before sitting up straight. 

Mom walked over next, pulling a chair over but giving me a hug first before sitting down, “I’m glad you’re at least mostly intact, but the prosecution asks why you didn’t come forward about the situation earlier?”

Her voice wasn’t harsh, which told me she was indulging in my appreciation for courtroom roleplays. They both knew I liked to roleplay as if everything was a trial. In a sense, everything  _ was _ a trial though.

“Because he was threatening to kill me, I didn’t see any other option. As much as justice needed to be dealt, there was no way of going about it without getting killed,” I mumbled. I did have a great measure of self preservation, at least now I did.

“I would have had the entire police force protecting you, you know this right?” she spoke softly. She could tear a defendant apart in a courtroom any day, but when it came to her kids she knew how to be a mom, a luxury that many kids didn’t have.

Well, neither of us are children anymore, but try telling that to my mom.

“I know, but I didn’t want to risk it. At one point he told me that he would have come after you guys too… I didn’t want to put anyone else in danger because of me. It’s bad enough that Vriska got hurt too…” I stifled a whine. I wasn’t going to break down here or  _ anywhere _ for that matter.

“You know I have the police on speed dial Terezi, I would just have to dial and press a button if I couldn’t talk and they’d be at our doorstep.”

I sighed, “He had me wrapped around his fingers Mom, I didn’t know what to do… I just didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.”

I heard her shift and shake her head, “Was this why you wanted to move so badly? Because he lived nearby?”

I nodded slowly, “Yeah, it was. If he didn’t know where I lived he couldn’t hurt me right? I mean it was only a matter of time before he got to me, but it was at least something.”

She sighed heavily and pulled me into her arms again, “If I could be the prosecutor for this case, he would never see the light of day again. Unfortunately that would be considered conflict of interest therefore I can’t.”

“I know Mom,” I choked. I pulled my glasses off and rubbed furiously at my eyes. I wasn’t going to cry, I’ve done enough of that for one school year. Granted the school year had already started and I’ve only cried the one time that Vriska showed up, but that was more than enough for me.

“You’re okay now Terezi, your okay,” Mom soothed, rubbing my back.

Latula hugged me from the side, “You’re okay lil’ sis, he’s gonna be behind barz now.”

I felt my composure crack and I sobbed harder than I had in a long time.

 

Around three in the afternoon they released me.

Mom had already gone ahead to get the car from the parking garage and promised to meet us out front as I took the last handful of pain medication the nurse handed to me and signed my discharge papers. 

I turned to face where Latula was sitting next to me and asked, “Do you mind if you show me over to Vriska’s room so I can see her before we leave?”

“Sure girl! She’s in room 48 in the ICU right?” Latula said cheerfully.

“She was moved over into room 413, which is only a floor up,” the nurse chimed in.

“Okay, we can totally swing over there before we headz out!”

I nodded and stood up. We walked to the nearest elevator and headed up, Latula texting our mom to let her know where we were going. I had been in room 314, so I had been almost directly below her.

“I’ll wait out here,” Latula said when we got there. I nodded and walked in.

Vriska probably would have snapped her head up if it wasn’t for the fact that it probably still hurt like hell. Instead I heard her lift it slowly, her hair shifting over the uncomfortable hospital gowns that everyone here had to wear.

“Hey Pyrope, your back,” she said quietly. “And in real clothes.”

“Yeah, I got discharged. They told me that my shoulder should be healed after about two months,”I muttered as I walked over sat on her bed next to her.

“If you got released then why are you still here?”

She was quiet, she’s never quiet. Wondering why she was quiet made my chest ache because I figured she was hurting over something. That was the only explanation.

I shrugged with my good shoulder, I didn’t have a good reason to give her.

“Considering Aranea’s offer?” she sat up and asked not any louder than she had been.

“Considering yeah, not sure whether or not I actually  _ want _ to see.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I’m so used to only seeing through one I it’s just normal to me.”

“Yeah.”

Silence fell again, awkward again.

I turned to get up, but she grabbed my hand, the metal surprisingly warm against my wrist. Must have to do with the mechanics of the prosthetic or something that kept it warm, “No, don’t go yet. I wanted to talk to you about something but I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

I turned back to face her, those  _ stupid _ feelings in my chest rising into my throat and no matter how desperately I tried to force them down, it wasn’t working.

“That’s not like you Serket, you’re usually blunt about everything,” I said quietly.

She shrugged, “Heh, I guess you’re right.”

She was silent for a second, not moving her hand, before saying, “Oh fuck this,” and ran her hand up my arm, tangling it in my hair, and pulling my head down awkwardly to bump against hers, causing her to gasp in pain, before managing to guide her mouth against mine.

That traitorous feeling in my chest spread all over me, from my chest to my toes to my fingers to my head. It was warm, and it was comfortable.

I finally had to admit to myself that this was what I had wanted. This is what that feeling was. It was a feeling of wanting to completely give yourself up to someone, and not just because they saved your life.

It was completely surprising that her kiss wasn’t demanding, she was soft and felt caring. It wasn’t something that I was used to, not at all, so it took me completely by surprise. I kissed her back at the same tempo.

Her hand kept me in place, but I didn’t try to move away either. Something told me that if I had even wanted to move, she would have let me. I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to be anywhere but right here.

However, I didn’t want to place myself in a place of vulnerability again. Never again did I want to go through what I did with Gamzee, but I didn’t think that Vriska would do that. Why would she save my life only to take it away?

Soon I was shaking though, my eyes watering. I wanted to have something where I could actually feel like I’m on equal footing with the other… Could she give that to me?

Her robotic arm slid back down to my arm and I pressed my face into the crook of her neck. She rubbed my back, “Shhhh… Shhhh… You’re okay,” she soothed. 

“Everyone keeps telling me that,” I said quietly. I pulled my head up when I realized that my glasses were probably stabbing into her neck, which didn’t sound very comfortable. 

“Why are you being so… not you?” I asked softly.

She scoffed, “Something about you, I don’t know what, makes me to want to not be a huge bitch to you.”

I snorted, taking my glasses off to dry my face, “That’s no fun, I like being able to tease you when I know I’ll get a response.”

She laughed, running her hand through my hair again, “Oh you’ll get a response all right.”

I laughed, “Good! You wouldn’t be you without it.”

She laughed and pulled my head back in for another kiss, only at a lost less of an awkward angle. She was a little more insistent this time, which sent a flutter of anxiety through my chest, but I welcomed it for it suited her. 

We stayed like that for awhile, locked at the lips with Vriska absentmindedly brushing her metal fingers through my hair. I wondered briefly if she could feel my hair at all, seeing as her entire left arm was metal. 

We jumped apart as we heard Latula clear her throat in the doorway, “As I’d hate to break up such a sweet moment, Mom’s getting impatient.”

My face burning, I got up and flashed a small smile at Vriska, “I’ll come visit you tomorrow if I can get a ride here.”

She nodded and hit the button for more morphine, and I could hear the smirk in her voice when she spoke, “You better come visit me! I’m going to be soooooooo bored here without anyone here.”

I laughed, “I’ll find a way, Karkat drives doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, but good luck getting him to actually drive somewhere without asking for a lot of gas money, his family isn’t very well off.”

“Well mine is, I’m not worried about the money part. I’ll come see you,” I said, smiling.

“Okay, see you tomorrow then Tereeeeeeeezi!”

I smiled at her and turned around to head over to Latula, who ruffled my hair, eliciting a sound of surprise and indignation from me. I heard Vriska laughing as we left, one of my favorite sounds.

We got downstairs and headed outside. It was still a nice day and it was nice to smell something besides stale hospital air.

Mom lightly tapped the horn on her car, causing me to jump at the sudden noise. We walked over to her car and got in, myself in the front seat.

“Ready to go back?” Mom asked.

“Yeah, it’ll be okay,” I flashed a small smile to her.

“Oh yeah it’ll be good girl, especially once your girlfriend gets out of the hospital!” Latula teased.

“Shut up!” I felt my face heat up again.

Mom laughed, “The prosecution asks for further explanation from the witness.”

Latula laughed maniacally, “With pleasure!”

My face burned the entire way back to campus.

 

We got to campus and I got a hug from Mom and Latula before they left. I walked toward my dorm and found Nepeta, Karkat, Tavros, and Equius in front of the building. I could hear them talking halfway up the hill that the dorm sat on top of.

Nepeta ran up first and it probably took all her power to only give me a light hug instead of tackling me to the ground, “I’m so glad that you and Vriskers are okay! We heard about what happened from Kanaya and we were so worried about you guys!”

She let go and I shrugged, “Yeah we’re okay, if I wasn’t for Vriska though I would have probably ended up with my skull smashed in.”

She rapidly nodded her head, “Well, I’m glad that you went to her room then!”

I nodded, “I take it Kanaya told you guys that I got released?”

Karkat spoke up next, walking over to me, “Yeah, she did. Also, I wanted to apologize for being a fucking douchecanoe about this whole thing, if I knew what he had been doing to you I would stuck around.”

“It’s fine Karkles, you didn’t know,” I smiled at the use of the old nickname, even if it only amused me.

“No, it’s not okay Terezi!” he said almost desperately. “I shouldn’t have just ditched you two. I saw the bruises on you and I didn’t do anything about it. I was going to ask but…”

I stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder, “It’s fine Karkat.”

He shook his head again, “No, no it’s not.”


	8. Vriska: Be released

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note for somewhat sexual content, somewhat anyway.

After a week of them poking and prodding at my head to make sure that my head wasn’t completely smashed in, which obviously it hasn’t because I’m still  _ alive, _ and a week of being bored out of my mind, they were going to release me.

Terezi came in every so often, it was her birthday soon, September 20th, and I was hoping that I’d get out by then. It was the 17th and I was being released. It’s about time.

She was only able to come visit when either Karkat or Equius would drive her here, seeing as she can’t drive herself for obvious reasons. When she wasn’t here and not in class, she would be on the phone with me.

Like right now for instance.

“I’m still, well,  _ considering _ Aranea’s offer by the way,” she was saying.

“Yeah? I’d still be wary of her being anywhere near your face with a scalpel,” I drawled. “She might dissect it instead of fixing your eyes.”

She laughed for a moment before saying, “I don’t know, I kinda want to see what my friend’s look like, what campus looks like, hell what  _ anything _ outside of my hometown looks like. I mean my hometown has probably changed since I was eight, but still.”

“Yeah,” I said while twining my fingers in the phone cord. I never really thought about what might have happened if I had lost the use of  _ both _ of my eyes in that crash. I wouldn’t be able to see anything at all and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“What  _ do _ you look like anyway Vriska?” she asked curiously.

“Eh, long wavy black hair, one blue eye, one lighter blue eye. Like what your eyes look like blue except with more blue. Well, I guess you don’t know what your eyes look like but yeah. I’m about five foot eight, and I have a robotic arm. I’m kinda pale skinned, like almost as pale as you,” I described thoughtfully. 

“Sounds beautiful,” I could hear her smiling.

“Well what did you expect!” I exclaimed, my face burning. My blind girlfriend was calling me beautiful when she couldn’t even see what I looked like, it was tooth decaying sweet.

She snorted, “Self centered as always aren’t we Serket?”

“You know it!” 

We were quiet for a few moments before Terezi spoke up again, “I think I’m going to take her up on that offer of hers.”

“If that’s what you want then I can’t stop you, just be careful because my sister is literally insane,” I warned. 

She laughed, “I’ll be careful.”

“You can’t be careful when you’re unconscious!”

She laughed again, “Why so worried Serket?”

“Shut up! I’m just warning you that my sister is a fucking bitch.”

She cackled, “It’ll be fine Vriska, I’ll be fine.”

At that point the doctor came in and I had to say my goodbyes. He looked over my chart before looking up at me and checking my vitals, “How’s your arm and head feeling? You’ve been on pain medication for a few days instead of the morphine correct?”

“Yeah, and they feel pretty much fine. I just can’t move fast otherwise it’ll hurt like a bitch,” I yawned.

He nodded and walked over to look at my head. They had to shave the part of my head that Gamzee had broken to fix it, so the side of my head was shaved. I wasn’t complaining though, I had been wanting to shave half my head for awhile. Looked pretty badass if you asked me.

He deemed that I was ready to go home, so I signed out my paperwork, which took much longer than necessary, and I waited the next hour for my mom to get here to take me back to campus.

The drive back was silent, which was nice I guess. I didn’t want to talk to my mother and my mother didn’t want to talk to me, which was perfectly fine,

She dropped me off, neither of us saying goodbye to each other, and I walked up to my residence hall. Terezi had told me that some of our friends had been there to welcome her back, but I specifically told her not to tell anyone that I was coming back.

I walked up to our floor and walked over to Terezi’s room. I knocked loudly and obnoxiously, and got a yell of, “Quit it Serket! I know it’s you.”

I burst out laughing as she opened the door, grabbed me by the shirt with her good arm, and pulled me into her room.

“Hey there Pyrope,” I snorted.

She laughed, “Hey yourself Serket!”

She pulled me into an awkward hug, which had us both catch our breath in slight pain from the still broken bones we had. She let go first and grinned maniacally at me.

“You get that room transfer in?” I asked, grinning even though she couldn’t see it.

“Of course! What kind of person do you think I am!”

“A lazy one!”

“Lies!”

We both laughed before Terezi spoke up again, “We have a week to move all our stuff to the joint room upstairs. I already asked everyone else if they’d help us move up there tonight once classes are done. I’m already done, Wednesday’s are my easy days.”

“I don’t return to class until tomorrow. Want to start moving things up?”

“We both have an arm out of commission Serket, we’re going to have to wait.”

“Damn,” I crossed my arms, a not too difficult feat for someone in a cast instead of a sling. Mine was cerulean blue, my favorite color.

“So we wait, want me to come help you pack?”

“Hell no,” I scoffed. “You can listen to me pack.”

She rolled her eyes, “Okay fine, I’ll listen to you pack.”

I laughed and pulled her over to my room, her kicking her door shut behind us.

 

Months passed very slowly. Terezi got, well not  _ lucky _ per se, but lucky in the sense that her non-dominant shoulder got broken. Writing in a cast is  _ such _ a pain in the ass.

Soon my cast was removed and she no longer had to use a sling. Physical therapy was a pain in the ass and pretty pricey, but thank God for insurance I guess.

Speaking of insurance, Terezi must have good insurance because it was covering her eye surgery with Aranea. 

The date for it was approaching faster than it seemed to be. Terezi had an appointment tomorrow actually, the Saturday before Fall Semester finals to be exact.

How’s that for stress?

She had many appointments actually, she had four more before her operation though. Aranea knew what she was doing though, and promised me not to cut up my girlfriend’s face more than she has to.

I knew Terezi was nervous, she was good at hiding it and wouldn’t say so if you asked her, but at her appointments her voice wavered sometimes and she never sat still. She was anxious, but she wouldn’t let anyone in on it.

She was trying to stay strong, I knew that much. She didn’t want to seem weak to anyone.

I looked over at the clock. It was almost 2AM Saturday morning, but we were studying for our exams and I didn’t count it to be Saturday until I went to sleep. Finals started Monday and we were going to be gone most of tomorrow at Aranea’s office. 

I flipped through pages of our Criminal Law textbook and groaned. I was so tired I wasn’t retaining any of the information that we were studying anymore. I looked over by Terezi, who had her headphones on as she leaned back against the wall. We were sitting on her bed, my textbooks spread everywhere. Criminal Law was probably the class I was secretly the most worried about because I thought half the laws were stupid and didn’t bother to memorize them.

Studying was boring too. We had been studying since five in the evening. Terezi looked like she was going to fall asleep sitting up. I was sitting next to her, also leaning against the wall, so I shut my textbook, put it aside, and leaned over to peck at her cheek and to wrap my arms around her shoulders.

She tried to stifle a smile but ultimately failed, “What? Bored already Vriska?”

“It’s two in the morning, of course I’m bored.”

She laughed, pausing her audio recording, pulling her headphones out, and putting them aside. My desk was right next to my bed and by extension right by her, so she reached over and set her headphones on my desk. Normally I would have snapped at her to put her own shit on her own desk because I knew she knew exactly where it was, but I didn’t care because I didn’t want her to move from this spot.

“Well what do you want to do to kill your boredom?” she asked curiously, smirking.

She knew, she definitely knew, so I didn’t get a shocked noise at all when I kissed her. What a shame, I liked those sounds.

Although, kissing her was my favorite part of the day hands down. 

It was great that we didn’t have casts or slings in the way of this either, because she was damn good at this. Not to say the chaste kisses here and there weren’t great either, but with this she was skilled and knew exactly what to do. I was no slouch either of course, I’ve had my experience, and I knew she liked it by the soft moans or whines she gave me when I bit her lip or traced the roof her her mouth with my tongue slowly.

Not to say I wasn’t quiet either, she definitely knew how to work her tongue. I would never admit it but when she’d run her tongue along my neck it was damn near orgasmic.

She also was really rough, which I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was hot. Like right now for instance, despite it being really early in the morning she was really into biting my lip. She shoved her tongue roughly into my mouth, running it along my teeth and along the top of my tongue slowly.

I retaliated of course, nipping her tongue so she’d pull it back so I could bite her lip and plunge my own tongue into her mouth. She tasted really good.

She turned me and started to push me back slowly enough for me to shove my textbooks out of the way so she could lay on top of me. I moved my head aside to trail kisses along her jaw and to her neck, kissing her where I could feel her pulse under my lips. Her heartbeat was fast, and I could feel her breathing start to grow heavy as I kissed lower on her neck and nipped the sensitive skin there.

She tilted her head aside and sighed. I sucked at the skin along the soft part of her neck and her back arched a little, a low whine escaping from her lips. The sound went straight between my legs and I had to stifle _ myself _ from moaning.

“Having fun?” I breathed, letting up with my mouth enough to talk, but letting my lips ghost her neck. She shivered.

“I don’t know, are you?” she countered, sounding breathless herself. Glad to know it wasn’t just me.

I nodded, nuzzling my head against her neck. She laughed softly, “Did you know that a blind person’s skin is much more sensitive to someone who can see?”

I kissed her neck, “Of course I did, who do you take me for?”

She snorted, “My girlfriend, who else?”

I laughed, “Damn right I am.”

“Shut up,” she laughed.

“Why don’t you shut me up?”

She pulled my head back down so she could lower her mouth to lick a strip along where I could feel my pulse beat against my skin, nipping the skin just below my jaw. My back arched on it’s own accord, and I bit my lip hard enough that I swore I was going to break skin and forced myself to exhale slowly instead of all at once. She definitely knew how to shut me up.

I was glad that tonight wasn’t one of those days where we had any residual pain from our injuries. While, yes, we were healed, but sometimes my head or arm still ached and her shoulder still hurt at times. Tonight wasn’t one of those nights.

She nipped my neck again and  _ poof _ my train of thought was gone. Gone like someone walking into a spider web. I didn’t mind though, it did the exact opposite of hurting. 

She ran her tongue along my neck again and kissed the spots she bit. She nipped all over, sucking on the skin and leaving marks of her own, claiming me as hers. Not that I was complaining, she was as much mine as I was hers.

She bit at that _one_ _spot_ and my back arched sharply and I took the sharpest breath I’ve taken in quite awhile. She giggled and bit it again, sucking on it. My legs wrapped around her hips on their own accord and I swear on my life that I didn’t whine for a minute straight. Okay that’s a lie, I did make some more shameful noises at that moment in time.

She dragged her fingers down my side, making me shudder involuntarily, and nudged her ice cold fingers under my shirt, cooling to my already burning skin just a little.

She nipped at my neck and rested her hand on my hip, tracing circles with her fingers. It was all I could do to not buck my hips upward.

While it was hard to form coherent thoughts now, mostly because Terezi seemed dead set on getting me off, what kept me from reciprocating  _ too _ much was the thought that came to surface as she ran her fingers up my stomach, leaving cool trails in her wake.

Had I manipulated people in relationships before? Yes. Was I proud of it? No. Had these subtle manipulations gotten me laid before? Yes. Was I proud of that? Not at all.

Somehow though, as much as I probably would have done anything to sleep with her right then and there, I didn’t want her to think that she had to. I didn’t want to manipulate her into this, I didn’t know why this was, I just knew that I didn’t want to hurt her like I hurt everyone else.

I wasn’t Gamzee, I wasn’t going to make her do anything she didn’t want to do. I wasn’t going to lay my hands on her in anything else but adoration and appreciation. 

I traced circles on her back with my fingers, biting my lip to keep myself (mostly) quiet, with my whole body straining to not be swept away by her affections. 

Normally I didn’t care who I hurt. I took what I wanted and cast aside the object of my manipulation like they were nothing. I knew I was a bitch, I was a huge bitch. I wasn’t a good person, and no one had ever come along to make me want to be one.

Until now. Something about her made me want to be a good person, at least to her. I guess being a bitch didn’t excuse me from having emotions.

I didn’t know why this was. I don’t know how she’s different from everyone. I never really had romantic feelings for many people anyway. I did for Kanaya in high school, but that went away pretty quickly.

I didn’t know why, I just didn’t want to use her like I’ve used everyone else.


	9. Vriska: Be.... kind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my God sorry I didn't update yesterday aaaaaa I've been writer's blocking so hard and I forgot to post the next chapter aaaa!

She pressed lightly on my lower stomach and God only knows why my back arched and and sounds that were definitely not words escaped from my throat. 

Wait Serket, that’s not supposed to be what leaves your mouth right now.

I tried to open my mouth to speak but only moaned again when her fingers dipped just below my waistline, pressing lightly. I was too aroused to create coherent thought.

What was I trying to say? My memory had left me. She bit my neck again and I got lost in the sensation. What was I trying to say? Why didn’t I want to say anything?

My memory came back to me hazily. That’s right, I wanted to tell her that she didn’t have to do this if she didn’t want to. 

He fingers slid lower and instead of speaking her name clearly, I moaned it instead. Her breath caught for a moment and she kissed at my neck again. 

“Terezi…” I said a little clearer. “Hold on a sec.”

She stopped, pulling her fingers back out and nuzzling my neck with her nose, “Hm?”

I made my legs let go of her waist and I held her tightly, “You know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to right? I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

She shrugged and instead of giving her a chance to talk, I continued, “I’m not Makara, I’m not going to use you. I don’t want to use you like I’ve used everyone else in my life…”

I felt her smile against my neck and she kissed it lightly, “You’re growing soft on me Serket.”

“Shut up! I’m trying to be nice,” if my face hadn’t already been red, it would have been now. 

“I know,” she laughed. “I appreciate it too.”

She nipped my neck again before rolling off me, “If you don’t want to do anything either, I won’t make you.”

“Oh trust me, I want to, I just don’t want to make you think you have to. I’m not gonna go anywhere just because I’m not getting laid whenever I want. I’m not that much of a bitch,” I rolled onto my side and kissed her nose, pulling her into my arms. “If you’d rather cuddle or something, I’m down for that too.”

She nuzzled her head under my chin and I rubbed circles onto her back. She made a noise like she was thinking, and kissed my throat again, “Not sure, you  _ are  _ really hot, and I  _ am _ really turned on by that, but I’m not sure if it’s too soon or not.”

“Then we don’t have to do anything,” I kissed her head. Her hair was soft, so I reached up and ran my fingers through it with the hand that wasn’t actually made of metal. 

She hummed in thought again and rolled off and curled into my side, “I think waiting might be a better idea for now. Plus, then I can keep you in suspense!”

I snorted, “Suspense for what Terezi? Please enlighten me.”

She pressed her lips to my cheek and grinned, “Guess you’ll have to find out.”

I groaned in mock irritation, “You’re a little shit you know that?”

Rolling back over onto her back, she cackled, “You wouldn’t have me any other way would you?”

“I hate to admit this but you’re right.”

 

The next morning I woke up to Terezi tracing lines on my collarbones with her nails. She wasn’t scratching them or anything, she was just tracing lines. It was nice.

“Mornin’,” I muttered. “When did you wake up?”

“About an hour ago, damn do you sleep like the dead.”

“Do you even sleep Terezi? I swear you don’t.”

“I do! Just not as much as you do!”

I rolled my eyes, slowly feeling more awake, “I’m rolling my eyes again, how do you even function on less than eight hours of sleep?”

“I don’t  _ need _ a lot of sleep like you do, and it’s almost noon! You’ve been asleep for at least eight hours now,” she stated, rolling her eyes. She didn’t have her glasses on yet, and she was laying on her side beside me. I slept on my back, so naturally I was laying on my back.

“It’s almost noon already? Damn, I might not have enough time to eat before your appointment.”

“We’ll grab food on the way, Mom said she’d be here at one.”

I sat up, groaning as I stretched. My stomach growled, “Can we get Taco Bell or something?”

“Yeah, there’s one on the way isn’t there?” She was in the middle of sitting up when her phone started ringing on the table next to the bed. I grabbed it before her, cackling, and saw it was her sister. I answered, “Heeeeeeeello Latula.”

“Oh hey girl! Where’s ‘Rezi?” she asked without missing a beat. She had recognized me immediately, but I was hard to forget so I wasn’t surprised.

“Sitting right next to me,” I stated, with the girl in question giving me death stares that would make you think that she could see. “I can give her a message though.”

Latula snorted, “Mom wanted to ask if you two wanted to go grab food before Terezi’s appointment, we’re almost there. We may have left a little early.”

“You mentioned food, I’m in,” I said quickly. My stomach was growling something fierce and I was always up for food anyway. Especially if I didn’t have to pay for it.

Terezi burst out laughing, “I’d be fine with food, as long as you don’t steal any of mine Vriska.”

“No promises!” I grinned at her before speaking into the phone to Latula again. “Where are we going to get food?”

“Probably Skaia Diner, Mom loves the place.”

“Hell yeah that place has the best pancakes, how far away are you?”

“‘Bout two minutes, better get ready girl!”

I tilted my head back and mouthed a few curses before lowering my head, “Okay, give us a minute.”

“Hurry up!” Latula laughed and hung up. I handed Terezi her phone before hopping off the bed and grabbing clothes. Terezi cackled as she got up and got dressed at how quickly I put myself together. 

“You’re getting ready awfully fast for someone who usually has to drag herself out of bed and trips over eight things before getting herself together!” she cackled.

“Shut up! There’s food involved and I’m starving. Plus, Skaia Diner has the best pancakes in the state,” I shot back, tripping over my own pant leg and nearly bashing my head into the lamp. This naturally did not escape Terezi’s notice and  _ she _ almost fell over from laughing.

“Shuuuuuuuut up Pyrope!” I groaned, finishing pulling my cerulean skinny jeans up and hooking my belt around through the loops to latch the pirate skull shaped buckle in place. After pulling my blank tank top down, but still behind the buckle, I pulled a grey, black, and cerulean plaid overshirt on. In one smooth motion, I turned to face Terezi while grabbing a hair tie off the desk to pull my hair up once I finished brushing it. “I can get dressed fast when I am properly motivated.”

“I can tell!” she laughed, finishing pulling a brush through her hair. Her hair was just too short to reach her plain black shirt that she wore with black jeans. She kicked on red shoes and grabbed her red and teal hoodie as I pulled on my red converse.

We headed out the door laughing, locking it behind us, and heading down to the ground floor to find that Terezi’s mom and sister were already there, Ms. Pyrope’s engine still running. They must have just gotten here.

Latula popped her head out from the passenger side window and with a smile on her face called out, “Get in! I’m hungry and this diner is totally wicked!” 

I almost facepalmed as we climbed into the backseat of the bright red car. Latula talked like it was still the 90s, but whatever. 

The drive there mostly consisted of Terezi and Latula messing with each other and banter between the two of them and myself. Ms. Pyrope was snickering through most of the ride, meaning she wasn’t irritated by the noise. Good, because it wasn’t stopping any time soon.

Well, it did when we got to the restaurant, whoops.

Or not really.

“Can we sit at the counter!?” Terezi asked, sounding extremely excited. 

“Terezi that’s cliche as hell, pluuuuuuuus there’s already a ton of people at the counter,” I drawled. 

She turned and flashed a grin at me, “Even so, I want to do it. I’m the one who’s getting her eyes fixed and I want to sit at the counter.”

I groaned as Latula snickered, saying, “We should totally sit at the counter.”

“You’re outvoted Serket!” Terezi turned fully to face me, holding her cane vertical in front of her and resting her hands on it. “The jury rules that we sit at the counter!”

I groaned again, leaning my head back to stare at the ceiling. I felt a smile try to tug it’s way at the corners of my lips but I shut it down before lowering my head back to eye level again. Latula and Terezi laughed and headed over to the counter, arms linked.

That left me and their mom to stand there awkwardly before looking at each other, shrugging, and walking over to sit with them. 

Terezi sat between me and Latula, and Ms. Pyrope sat on the other side of her eldest daughter. The waitress who was manning the counter walked over, said hello, and gave us menus. I already knew I wanted the pancakes, but  _ what kind of pancakes there were so many options. _

Terezi “looked” at the waitress and said, “I don’t really need a menu, I can’t see.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry I didn’t-” she started apologizing and stammering.

“It’s fine,” Terezi laughed, handing back the menu. “I’ll have one of these guys tell me what’s on it.”

“Get the pancakes!” I hissed, smiling. That got the waitress to smile a little bit as she excused herself to go help another customer. 

“What kind of pancakes do they have Vriska?” Terezi asked, tapping her head against mine. She was on my blind side so I didn’t even quite realize what she was doing until I turned my head and she tapped the very center of my forehead. Snorting, I pulled the menu up, “They’ve got blueberry, raspberry, cherry, peach, apple cinnamon, banana, and plain.” 

“Cherry!” she exclaimed, right in my ear. I scrunched up my face in pain for a moment before rolling my eyes, “I’m rolling my eyes Terezi, I’m not surprised.”

“You shouldn’t be!” she bumped her head against the side of my head this time. “What are you getting?”

“Probably blueberry, I usually get that here.”

“You’re not going to try something new?”

“Nah, I don’t feel like it.”

She rolled her sightless eyes, “Isn’t that booooooooring though Serket?”

I pointlessly glared at her, “Is that a challenge?”

“It might be!”

“You’re on! I’ll get the damn apple ones then!”

Her grin was as wide as ever as the waitress came back. Terezi got the cherry pancakes, I got the apple cinnamon ones, Latula got a breakfast platter, and Ms. Pyrope got cherry french toast.

I nudged Terezi with my shoulder, “Betcha you won’t be able to eat all your pancakes before we have to leave for your appointment.”

She grinned, “Is  _ that _ a challenge?”

“You bet your ass it is.”

“You’re on!”

Latula was snickering as I bumped heads with Terezi again and her mom was shaking her head with a smile. I was smiling too, I couldn’t deny that one.

Soon enough the waitress came back with our food, and by God the apple cinnamon pancakes looked amazing. I barely said, “Oh my God these are good,” before completely devouring them. The pancakes here were delicious.

Terezi devoured hers as well, mimicking me almost exactly by stating that they were delicious and not saying a word until they were gone.

Latula had laughed, saying, “Wow, if I ever need to get you two to be quiet I just need to give you wickedly good pancakes!”

I shot her a glare and went back to all but inhaling my pancakes.

After finishing them I pushed the plate away and rested my head on the counter, saying, “Those were so good.”

Terezi finished hers about the same time, “Aren’t you glad that I challenged you to try something new?”

“Fuck off!”

She cackled, arms wrapped around her stomach and everything. I groaned and sat upright, “You win this round Pyrope, but next time I’ll have you in my web!”

She laughed some more before calming down enough to speak again, “You keep telling yourself that. I on the other hand am going to go to the restroom while you plot a futile plan to try and one up me!”

“It won’t be futile just you watch!”

She laughed as Latula stated that she would be going with her, and the two younger Pyropes headed off to the restroom, leaving a semi-awkward silence.

After a few moments of me picking at my nails, Terezi’s mom spoke up, “You know, I almost took up the case on Aradia’s death.”

My head snapped to look at her, “You wha-”

“I couldn’t of course, conflict of interest, but I almost asked to try. Terezi was upset when she had died, even if she hadn’t know Aradia very well.”

I nodded slowly, “I was pretty upset about losing my arm and the use of my left eye too. She was at fault, hadn’t stopped or paid attention to where she was going, and I lost my arm and eye because of it.”

She nodded, “I know, and I can’t imagine how traumatic that was.”

I shrugged, “I have nightmares of it sometimes, but other than that it’s mostly just inconvenient.”

“I can imagine, Terezi would have nightmares at first when she lost her vision.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, don’t tell her I told you though.”

“I won’t,” I nodded as Terezi and Latula rounded a corner and came back up to us.

Ms. Pyrope smiled and stood, “We should get going, we don’t want to be late.”

I nodded sharply, “Oh yeah, Aranea would be pissed if we were late.”

Terezi smiled, “Then let’s go!”


	10. Vriska: Wait

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *confetti*

Chapter 10: Vriska: Wait

Her last few appointments with Aranea came and went, and soon enough it was time for her eye surgery.

Terezi was nervous, she didn’t want anyone to notice as per always, but I knew. I could see it in her sightless eyes that she was nervous. She also was fidgeting with her cane and had her head angled toward the floor. Her anxiety wasn’t getting past me at all.

One of Aranea’s nurses led us back to the prep room and after all the prepping stuff was done, most of which I didn’t pay attention to, Terezi was hilarious drugged up on the anesthesia.  

I sat next to her and rubbed my thumbs over her knuckles. Latula was sitting on the other side of her, snickering at the jumbled mess of words that were tumbling out of Terezi’s mouth.

She was twice as giggly as usual, but she also looked incredibly tired. I guess that was to be expected since she was about to go under for surgery.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. This was Aranea doing her surgery, my sadistic and manipulative sister was going to be fixing up my girlfriend’s eyes. I didn’t trust her, she put me to shame on the manipulation scale and she was eight times as sadistic. 

Aranea was standing at the foot of Terezi’s bed scribbling on a chart and looking at Terezi’s vitals. She was at least doing her job right this time around.

I looked back over at Terezi, who was starting to look even more tired.

“Bit tired there Pyrope?” I teased.

“Shut up Serket,” she slurred, giggling even though she was trying to be stern with me. Or at least that’s what I thought she was doing.

I threw her a mischievous grin and she slowly raised her free hand to flip me off before turning her other hand over to grasp at mine.

Wow she really was nervous, her hands were clammy as hell. I put my metal hand over hers and she smiled nervously at me. 

“But in all seriousness… I have to tell you something Vriska…” she drawled.

I nodded slowly, my heart clenching in my chest. Everyone and their stepmother got nervous when someone has to tell you something. Everyone. “Yeah Terezi?”

Her hand tightened around mine, “Been too nervous to tell you for over a month now… but I’m all doped up on anesthetic and feel twice as blunt as usual so I wanted to tell you that I love you Serket.”

My eyes widened and my hands around her hand tightened, blinking rapidly. No one had ever said that to me before in my life. No one, not my mother, not Tavros, no one. 

I never thought anyone would have the capacity to love someone like me. I wasn’t the best person on Earth, I was probably one of the worst. I was a manipulative bitch and I didn’t care who I hurt. 

I bowed my head to touch my forehead against hers and and I could hear her smiling as she slurred something that I couldn’t hear over the roaring in my ears. I blinked several more times before the traitorous things started dripping tears onto her face. 

“Why are you crying… Vriska?” she drawled almost nervously. I shook my head and pressed my lips to her forehead, “No one has ever said that to me before Pyrope, give me a second.”

She blinked slowly and yawned and I hiccuped against my will. I hadn’t wanted to put a name to what she had been making me feel, putting a name to it made it real. I let go of her hand and wrapped my arms around her shoulders, “I love you too Terezi. You weren’t the only one who was afraid to say it.”

I could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke, “Well… glad I wasn’t… the only one… who was afraid… although… I didn’t expect you to…. admit you were afraid… of anything…”

She laughed a little as I bumped my head against hers, “Oh shut up Pyrope.”

She laughed drunkedly, “If no one… has ever… told you that they loved you… I’ll be sure to tell you… often…”

I sniffed and smiled a little, “You’re a sap Terezi.”

Despite my teasing, I could feel my heart fluttering in my chest. My nervousness about her surgery was still there, but it wasn’t the only iron in the fire right now. I pecked kisses on Terezi’s face softly, smiling as she giggled. It distracted her from replying I guess, because she never responded to my statement.

“Hey Vriska…” she yawned, reaching a hand up to brush my hair away from my face. “I’m going…. to take a little nap now…”

I kissed her forehead, “You do that, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

She smiled and she was out in seconds.

Aranea cleared her throat as I sat up, “Now that she’s out, I’m going to have to take her back now sister of mine.”

I rolled my eyes, “I figured Aranea. Don’t hurt her too much or I’ll have to make you pay.”

She glared at me, “She’s a patient Vriska, I won’t hurt her beyond what typical surgery does.”

“You better not. Now go fix her eyes.”

“Bossy as always are we?” Aranea snickered, waving over her nurses. “She’ll be fine. Now kick back and relax because this is going to take awhile.”

I nodded as Latula grabbed my wrist to pull me out into the waiting room.

 

The surgery itself took two hours, but it seemed to take even longer than that. Probably because I was nervous, not that I would let anyone see that.

I didn’t do much beyond stare at the clock. Latula left after awhile to go talk on the phone with her boyfriend and Ms. Pyrope was working on stuff from, well, work. Being an persecutor must be a lot of work, good thing I didn’t want to go into law. I wanted to be in the Navy, where I could sail the seas and maybe even do something productive with my life. Maybe, who knows.

I decided after an hour that staring at the clock wasn’t going to do me much good, so I pulled out a book about pirates from the colonial era in the Indian Ocean. It was interesting, but I was distracted.

I looked up at the clock about every five or so minutes. Aranea said that the surgery would take around two hours, and it had only been an hour and a half when I got up and started pacing. I didn’t trust my older sister, I didn’t trust that she would take proper care of Terezi. She never took care of anything I loved that I trusted her to take care of.

“Anxious?” Terezi’s mom said, making me jump from the sudden break in silence. She chuckled lightly, “You don’t have to hide it you know.”

I slowly turned my head to look at her, “If you knew my family, you would know that I do have to hide it.”

She smiled softly, “I know. My family has a bad habit of hiding their emotions too. I do it because I have to, Terezi does it because she thinks she has to, and Latula keeps a mask going to hide who she really is. She’s not always as happy as she seems.”

I nodded slowly, turning the rest of me to face her, “Why do you have to?”

“I’m a prosecutor, I’ve learned to keep my emotions shoved aside to keep a level head in the courtroom.”

I nodded again. I walked over and sat next to her, sighing, “My mom and sister are just huge bitches, they put me to shame in that sense.”

“Do you know why they’re like that?” she asked, tilting her head.

“No clue.”

She sighed, “I knew your mother, but I don’t know what goes through her head.”

My eyes widened, “You know my mom?”

“Yeah, but that’s a story for another day.”

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, Aranea walked into the room as she pulled her surgeon’s mask off her face. She was smiling, “All done! The surgery went well, she should be able to see once her eyes heal.”

I couldn’t help myself from smiling, “You didn’t cause her any undo pain?”

“Of course not, I’m not getting sued by my sister for malpractice,” she rolled her eyes.

“Good.”

Ms. Pyrope got Latula and we walked upstairs to Terezi’s room, who was still out like a light.

She had gauze wrapped around her eyes and the rest of her head. They weren’t  _ too _ bloodstained, but it was enough that if I was squeamish I would have had a problem with it.

I walked over by her bedside and sat next to it. It took her about an hour to wake up, but I spent the entire time watching her. Latula and her mom talked but I paid them no attention. I wanted her to wake up. I held her right hand in mine, letting my left arm hold me up. Most of her IV’s were in her left arm, so I didn’t feel too bad about holding her hand.

I knew when she woke up because her hand twitched. 

I had been dozing off when I felt it, and I was starting to doubt my sanity when her hand flexed.

“Terezi?” I yawned. Graceful as always Serket, graceful as always.

She snickered weakly, “Good morning Vriska.”

“It’s the middle of the afternoon Pyrope, not morning at all.”

“Like hell am I going to know that.”

Latula and their mom walked over. Latula sat on the corner of her bed and Ms. Pyrope stood next to the bed and said, “How are you feeling Terezi?”

“My eyes kinda hurt and I’m tired, but other than that I feel fine.”

I snickered, “Of course your eyes are going to hurt.”

“No shit! I had no idea such a thing would happen!” she grinned.

Aranea walked in again and shooed as all aside so she could check vitals and such, “Glad to see you awake Terezi! On a scale of one to ten how would you rate your pain right now?”

“I’m guessing the painkillers are doing their job because it’s maybe a four on that scale?”

“That’s good, if you need any more morphine the button is right here,” she guided her hand to the button on her IV stand. 

“Great! Now if I feel like someone’s trying to gouge out my eyes with a spoon I’ll know what to do!” she laughed.

We all laughed before Aranea finish writing things on Terezi’s chart, “Okay, Terezi you should be able to take the bandages off in a week. I have a special eye cover you’ll have to wear for the next month so your eyes can heal.”

She nodded before Aranea continued, “After that, you should be able to see. You’ll need glasses, but you should be able to see.”

Terezi grinned, “That sounds great. Could I have my red glasses fitted with prescription lenses like I did when I was a kid?”

“Of course,” Aranea smiled. It looked off, like she was trying to hide a grimace. Suspicion caused my hands to ball into fists, but I uncurled them right away.

Something was going on, but I didn’t know what.

 

Terezi came back to the dorm two days later. Everything went about as normal, except for Terezi complaining about her eyes hurting and taking painkillers every so often. A week after, we went into Aranea’s office to take the bandages off. 

Aranea unwrapped the bandages, which didn’t have a speck of blood on them anymore, and Terezi hissed and covered her closed eyes with her hands. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked with a hint of anxiety, I still didn’t trust my sister.

“Bright…” she hissed again. “I didn’t even open my eyes but it’s too  _ bright _ .”

Aranea looked pleased, “That means you’re sight is returning. You can see the lighting through your eyelids, which I can imagine after twelve years is pretty bright.”

“You bet it’s fucking bright,” she said in a strained voice, her arms still over her eyes.

I snickered, “Now imagine when you open your eyes fully for the first time in twelve years.” 

“That’s going to hurt for days,” Terezi growled.

“Only until your eyes adjust,” Aranea said, smiling. She picked up the eye cover that was sitting on the table next to her and turned back to Terezi, “You’re going to have to move your arms in order to put the eye cover on.”

She hissed again, her muscles tensing, as she pulled her arms down from her eyes. Aranea placed the eye cover on her eyes and fastened the latch on the back of her head. Terezi relaxed and sighed, “That’s better, the darkness doesn’t hurt as much.”

I reached over and held her hand, “Do your eyes hurt at all even with it being dark?”

She grinned, “Not as bad as they did at first, so I take it that they’re healing.”

Aranea smiled again, “That does mean that they are healing, which is a good sign, and there also seems to be no sign of infection either. You’re healing well Terezi.”

Terezi smiled, turning to face me. I smiled back, even though she couldn’t see it yet.

Soon, she’ll be able to see soon.


	11. Terezi: See

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that this chapter is kind of lengthy, but I think it's worth it! Enjoy!

Weeks went by, and having the eye cover made things almost feel no different. Except when I was in the shower or had to take the cover off for any reason.

I never showered with the light on before, it’s not like I had to, but Aranea suggested that after two weeks that I started turning on the light. I didn’t have to open my eyes, but it was at the point where my eyes were healed enough to take in the light through my eyelids.

Even so, the light hurt like hell at first.

Eventually I started to get used to it. All I could see was the reddish color of what was probably the blood running through my eyelids that I could see with the light going through them. 

I got out of the shower and dried off, putting the eye cover back on. Stepping out of the bathroom, I could hear Vriska snoring softly. I had a class at eight in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a math class that I wasn’t really looking forward to going to. However that wasn’t what I was focusing on right now.

Today was my appointment with Aranea where I would be taking my eye cover off for good.

I was a little excited to say the least. I was going to be able to see everything that I haven’t been able to see since I was a child and be able to see everything that I’ve never seen before in my life.

However, I was also a little nervous. What if I didn’t like being able to see? I never particularly cared that I was blind. I only missed it sometimes, but at the same time it would make life a little bit easier and I wouldn’t miss out on stuff that I’ve missed out on before.

I went to class, leaving Vriska to sleep in like she did every Tuesday and Thursday. She didn’t have class until noon, and she only had one class.

Hours later, we were in the backseat of Mom’s car heading out to Aranea’s clinic. 

We walked in and the receptionist had us wait for Aranea to get done with another patient. We waited for probably ten minutes, before we were called back into her office.

Vriska sat right next to me and rested her head on my shoulder, “Finally, something interesting for the first time all day.”

I snorted, “Are you ever  _ not _ bored?”

“Rarely.”

I laughed and I heard Aranea walk over and drag a chair to sit in front of the bench that we were sitting on, “Hello Terezi, are you ready to take those eye covers off?”

I grinned widely, “Hell yeah I am! Let’s do this!”

“Alright then,” she chuckled. “The lights in here have been dimmed to minimize the pain from the light. You should, however, be able to see a little bit even if it’s blurry.”

I nodded. I knew for an absolute fact that my eyes were going to hurt like hell as soon as I opened them from the light.

“Oh yeah it’s dim in here, I can barely see anything!” Vriska groaned.

Mom shushed her, “There’s a purpose to it being dark, you don’t want her eyes to hurt too much do you?”

“...No.”

“Then stop complaining,” she was smiling, I could hear it in her voice.

Vriska grumbled to herself for a moment before I lifted my arms to untie the eye covers like I had done so many times before to shower. 

I heard Aranea’s hair shift and Vriska lifted her head and turned to watch me. Mom and Latula were only a few feet from us, their attention on me. Well, when we came in they were facing me at least and I haven’t heard them move.

I untied the covers and pulled them off. It was definitely dark in here, but there was enough light for me to tell that there was light there. 

I slowly, and by slowly I mean slower than a dead slug, opened my eyes.

After a few millimeters I shut my eyes again, hissing from the dim light. Give me a break, I haven’t seen the light of day (or the inside of an office) with my own open eyes in twelve years.

Vriska rubbed my back and I tried again, opening my eyes slowly but surely. After about ten minutes of that, I managed to open them enough to see mostly darkness, but there was enough light to see blurred shapes of  _ things _ everywhere.

The excitement caused my eyes to open the rest of the way on their own, which hurt by the way.

Hissing, I squinted at everything. I could  _ see _ things, and I was squinting at them to try and see them more clearly, which only kind of worked.

I noticed after a second that I was staring at Aranea, or who I assumed was Aranea. She was sitting directly in front of me on a chair, so I figured that it was her.

I turned my head to where Vriska was sitting and took a look at her blurred frame. She was a bit taller than I was, which I knew already, and had long, dark hair with very fair skin. I couldn’t make out much besides that due to the dimness of the room.

I smiled widely as Vriska tossed her hair over her shoulder, “Whatcha’ looking at Pyrope?”

“You Serket!” I pulled her into a hug. “Even if you are pretty much a blurry mash of color right now!”

She laughed and hugged me tightly and Aranea cleared her throat, “It’s excellent that you can see Terezi. Once your eyes adjust to the lighting, we’ll slowly lighten the room until your eyes can handle the lights.”

I nodded and as my eyes adjusted we did just that. After what was probably about an hour, we had the lights at full brightness. It was then that Aranea took me over to another room to do an eye exam before taking me back to her office.

She left shortly after to put in the order for my (custom) glasses. She figures they would be done in about an hour. She had already ordered the materials for them so I could have the made right away.

I rested my head on Vriska’s shoulder and squinted at my mother. She was still tall with the trademark red Pyrope glasses, her black hair still short. She wore her red and teal work shirt that looks almost the exact same as it had when I was a child, black pants and red boots. I couldn’t make out details of course, but I definitely tell it was my mother.

Latula sat right next to her, her long black hair draped over her shoulders. Her hoodie was teal with red pockets and what looked like a Libra sign over the right side of her hoodie on her chest, my right anyway. She also wore the trademark Pyrope red glasses, only hers were square instead of cat-eye shaped. She wore teal skinny jeans and what looked like red Converse.

Could you tell that teal and red clothes were a family trait?

I was wearing a plain black shirt with a teal Libra sign over the front with black jeans and red shoes. The hoodie I had been wearing when we got here tossed aside. It was the same as Latula’s, only with the red and teal switched.

Vriska was wearing a grey zip-up hoodie with a black shirt with a blue (or as Vriska corrected me, cerulean) Scorpio sign.

I used to read the horoscopes out of my mom’s magazines when I was a child, and I was amazed that I could still remember them.

Vriska and I complained about school and finals for most of the hour and a half that it took for me to get my glasses. Mom laughed at us every so often and Latula mostly was on her phone, probably texting her boyfriend.

Aranea walked in with a small case in her hands, smiling, “Here we are! I have your glasses for you.”

I sat up straight, “Sweet!”

She handed them to me and I opened up the small black case. The pair of glasses that rested in the case looked a lot like the glasses I had as a child. They were red tinted, cat-eye shaped glasses like my mother’s. They looked almost identical to the ones I used to wear, only bigger of course to fit my head.

Excited, I put them on and was able to see clearly for the first time in twelve years.

Everything had sharp edges and was dimmed a little from the red tinted lenses. I turned to Vriska to see her first of course. 

She had wavy hair and wore glasses that had one lense that was black, must be covering her blind eye. I couldn’t see her prosthetic arm, her hoodie was baggy enough that you couldn’t tell. I looked down at her left hand, there was the prosthetic. It looked like robotic hand, not like the prosthetics I used to see when I was younger. Technology!

I looked back up at her, she had blue lipstick on, along with blue eye makeup. She was grinning at me, “Like what you see?”

I snorted, “Yes Vriska, I do.”

She grinned again and pulled me into another hug. I laughed, “You’re self centered as always.”

“You know it!”

Mom stood up to give me a hug, but I motioned her to stay. I stood up, but got hit with a wave of dizziness so strong I had to sit down again. Aranea walked over, “That’ll happen for awhile at first. Sometimes when patients don’t have new glasses for awhile and suddenly get new ones they get dizzy for a little bit. It’ll be worse for you for awhile, but it should pass.”

I nodded at her. She had short black hair, and was wearing similar makeup as Vriska. She wore white framed glasses, and had bright blue eyes. Vriska stood up, and I saw that Aranea was taller, but not by much.

Vriska offered me her hand to help me stand, and after a strong wave of dizziness passed, I took a few steps forward to give my mom a hug. 

“Now there is nothing you guys can get past me!” I cackled as I turned to give Latula a hug.

“Ha! I’ll still get things past you Terezi, don’t doubt me on that!” Vriska scoffed.

How does one respond to that? By sticking your tongue out is how. I recieved a laugh in return along with a hair flip.

Aranea left to grab some paperwork before returning and having me sign them. It took me a second to figure out what I wanted my signature to look like, and signed them. 

Aranea straightened the paperwork before picking it up, “Alright then Terezi, looks like you’re all set! Your glasses are designed to transition into sunglasses when you go outside, but it’ll take a few minutes to adjust so be careful at first when going outside.”

I nodded, smiling widely, before turning on one heel and walking toward the door. I discovered very quickly that the main lobby area was  _ very fucking bright _ , which caused me to squint, hissing. Vriska, who had come up to stand next to me, snickered, “It’ll be worse when you step outside trust me, the sidewalks over here are new so they’re practically white and reflect the light.”

“Lovely,” I growled before continuing my trek forward toward the main entrance. She had been right, it was much worse outside. Bad enough that I screwed my eyes shut and continued forward with Vriska pulling me toward my mom’s car. 

I managed to open my eyes enough to see that it was bright red, which was hell on my eyes, and looked really fancy compared to the cars I saw years ago when I could see. It didn’t surprise me that it was a nice car either, seeing as my mother made a decent amount of money. 

I could see again, it was disorienting but exciting at the same time.

I climbed into the backseat of Mom’s car, and opened my eyes into slits. The windows were tinted so it wasn’t so bright. Vriska climbed in next to me, but I was squinting so she looked more like a dark blur than anything else.

Mom and Latula sat up front. My sister turned her head to look over at me, and I could barely make out the toothy smile she was giving me, “Are you excited lil’ sis?”

I gave a toothy smile right back, “Oh yeah!”

The ride back to campus mostly consisted of me slowly opening my eyes back up and staring out the window. There were so many different buildings with different colors and signs. I couldn’t read most of the street signs, and learning to read college level textbooks after having not read anything with my eyes since I was eight years old was going to be interesting, but I was still amazed by it all anyway.

I gave Mom a crushing hug and gave Latula a hive five (which hurt because she’s strong, which also probably has to do with all the skateboarding she does) when we got back to campus and all got out of the car.

“Be safe now, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, and if you need help with anything let me know,” Mom instructed, stepping back toward her car.

“Yeah ‘Rezi, if you need help with any reading practice let me know!” Latula smiled, which I could see better since my eyes were slowly adjusting to the light.

I nodded several times, “Will do, I’m sure I’ll be fine though. Bye guys!”

“Bye!” Mom and Latula said at the same time, laughed, and got in the car. They drove off, and I turned to Vriska who was fiddling with a screw in her left hand. 

“Something come loose?” I asked.

“Happens all the time,” she grumbled. “I have a screwdriver in the room, I’ll fix it there.”

I nodded and looked up at the dorm building. It looked so nice.

After a few moments, Vriska waved her hand in front of my eyes, “Are you going to stare at the dorm all day or are we going to go inside?”

I lowered my head, grinned, and started walking toward the building. 

The dorm looked great, albeit messy. The walls were white with posters of Nic Cage films over Vriska’s bed and two huge windows. My bed was against one wall and Vriska’s on the opposite, with desks in front of the windows behind the beds and dressers on the opposite end of the bed. My bed had a teal comforter with a dragon on it, and Vriska having a cerulean one with a giant spider on it. This didn’t surprise me at all, but what did surprise me was the fact that Vriska had made  _ both _ of our beds.

There were clothes thrown about Vriska’s side of the room, and my half of the room was relatively clean. I had to have it clean otherwise I never would know where anything was, or if something was the right thing I was looking for.

I turned to Vriska, who was just walking in the door and about to drop her backpack next to her dresser, “Wow, I’m going to need to hang some things up on my side of the room, it’s really bare.”

Vriska snorted, “It is, and we’ll get some stuff for it. Or you could take your art and hang it up?”

I grinned, “I’d like that.”

I walked over to the bed and threw myself onto it, knocking my glasses askew for a few moments. I remember my sister getting me this comforter for my birthday in September and describing to me the dragon on it, with all it’s red and blue scales and many horns on it’s head. 

I heard Vriska snicker, and looked up at her so see her covering her hand with her mouth. I tilted my head, “What’s so funny?”

“Not telling, you’ll laugh at me,” she mumbled. 

“Who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend? You always speak your mind,” I narrowed my eyes as I spoke and pushed myself up on my elbows. Seeing as I was laying on my back it was a semi-uncomfortable position, so I pushed myself up to sit up straight.

Her face turned red and she looked away for a moment, “I know, just, ugh, okay, it’s so, well, beautiful to see you so happy and being able to see and looking at things and I don’t know…” 

I smiled at her, even though she wasn’t looking, “Come over here.”

She looked back over and slowly moved over and sat next to me. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her back with me so we were both laying down and I wrapped the other arm around her collarbones, “I’m not going to laugh at you for that.”

She made a sound of disbelief in her throat and I nuzzled my head against her neck, “Truly, I won’t laugh at you for something if you’re being serious.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. “Lay here with me?”

I smiled and kissed her jaw, “That was the point Serket.”

“I’m rolling my- oh you can see me roll my eyes now.”

“I can! I’m just not looking at your face right now, I’m looking at your neck, and even if I was I’d only see one eye.”

She shrugged a little, “That’s all you have to see.”

I wish I was looking at her face, because she made the most interesting facial expressions and I wanted to see if her face had matched the sad tone in her voice.

She was beautiful, with wavy black hair and the eye I could see was a beautiful blue. Her lips were full, which I knew already from kissing her, but it was nice to actually see what they looked like. 

I was, however, curious as to what her blind eye looked like. I haven’t looked in a mirror yet, and I remember her saying at one point that they were a pale blue like mine are. I don’t know what mine look like yet, but I could see hers.

I looked up at her and she tilted her head down so she could see me and when I reached to grab her glasses she snatched my wrist, narrowed her eyes, and asked, “What are you doing?”

“I want to see what your blind eye looks like,” I said innocently.

“You don’t need to, there are way more interesting things to do than look at my blind eye,” she hadn’t let go of my wrist yet, and she still looked suspicious.

I rolled my eyes, “I want to see it though.”

“Why?” she asked, her voice a little tense.

“Because I’m curious as to what it looks like, I want to know what you look like all over and that includes your eyes.”

She clenched her jaw for a moment before relaxing and releasing my wrist, “No, not my eye.”

“Why not?”

She scowled, but didn’t say anything. A thought occurred to me, “Are you self conscious about it?”

“No!” she exclaimed rather loudly. She was lying. 

“I can smell your deceit and hear your lies, I think you are self conscious about it.”

She scowled again, “If I let you see my eye will you drop it?”

“For now yes,” I grinned. She facepalmed with her left hand, which had to hurt.

I reached for her glasses as she inhaled and held her breath. I pulled them off and her left arm immediately shot up to cover her eye and her eyes shut. I set her glasses on her head, hooking them on her ears so they didn’t go anywhere, and rested my hand on her metal wrist and tugged on it so she would move it away.

She kept her eyes screwed shut as I guided her arm away and laid it down on her side. The scars around her eye reminded me of a spiderweb, obvious scarring circling around her eye where they had to have been cut up by glass. I kissed her jaw and whispered, “Open your eyes love.”

She exhaled and opened them, turning her head away so I couldn’t see her face. I guided her head back to look at me. Her eye was a pale blue, as she had said, and the pupil was clouded. There were little scars all over her eye, and in the clouds of her pupil I could see little jagged lines where there were more scars. She looked back and forth before settling on looking me dead in the eyes. 

A soft smile found it’s way onto my face, “It’s time for me to be a sap Vriska.”

She didn’t say anything, just nodded. I brushed a few stray strands of hair out of her face like you see in those stupid movies that Karkat likes so much and rested my forehead on hers, “You’re beautiful, all of you, even your blind eye. The scars are a part of you and they give you a badass kind of appeal, which I know you try so hard to achieve. I’m glad that you were the first person I saw when I got my full sight back.”

She smiled softly, “You’re a sap Terezi.”

“You love it though.”

“You’re right.”


	12. Terezi: Panic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of long, and trigger warnings for: rape/non-con and domestic violence being retold and panic attacks.

It was a Tuesday morning.

Vriska and I walked down the hallway of the building that housed the mailroom and rounded the corner into said mailroom. We were laughing over some joke that I no longer remember, shoving each other around and stumbling through the doorway. When we reached our mailboxes, which luckily were in the same row of mailboxes, Vriska was saying something about hoping the latest Nic Cage movie she ordered was in there as I opened my mailbox. I pulled a single envelope out and opened it. It took me a moment to read what it said, but my reading skills had been coming along very fast. However, when I realized what I was reading, my blood ran cold.

It was a subpoena.

I was to testify in court against Gamzee Makara the following Tuesday. 

I stared at the small black print telling me that I was to be at the Prospit courthouse on March 10th at 10AM for what felt like hours. I didn’t realize I wasn’t breathing until Vriska shook my shoulder and said something that I didn’t quite hear.

“Terezi!” I heard her say sharply, but it sounded far away. I inhaled and she sounded less far away when she said my name again.

“I’m… okay,” I managed to spit out. My head was still swimming, but I could hear now. Vriska took the subpoena out of my hand and I noticed that she had one too. She had to go to court too. 

“You weren’t  _ breathing _ Terezi and you looked like you were going to pass out flat on the floor. We’re going back to the room,” Vriska said shortly, but when I winced her irritated expression smoothed out into worry. “Sorry, I just want to make sure you’re okay. You look like you’re going to be sick and if anyone decides to come anywhere near you I might deck them because I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you.” 

I nodded slowly and she led us back out of the building and toward the dorm. She gave every person passing by a venomous look that could kill a fully grown horse, and I felt abnormally timid. My posture was slightly slouched, and if it wasn’t for Vriska’s literal iron grip on my wrist I would have been ten feet behind her.

We got back to the dorm, and as I shut the door Vriska all but threw the envelopes on her desk before running her hands through her hair. She was stressed out, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she was worried about me or if it’s because she didn’t want to find herself in a courtroom again.

Maybe it was both.

I mean, I didn’t blame her. The only reason I’d ever want to be in a courtroom would be to put some guilty party in prison, or death row when appropriate. Being in court for anything else was awful, or so I was told.

Most of what I was told was from Vriska herself.

My mom was a prosecutor, I knew what went on in a courtroom. They knew I was the daughter of the notorious Neophyte Redglare, named for her red lenses and uncanny ability to send all guilty parties to their fates in either prison or the dark embrace of oblivion ever since she left law school. I was a pre-law student as well. 

They were going to show me no mercy at the witness stand.

Vriska was a criminal justice major with every intention to join the Navy after college. She’s had to deal with being charged with vehicular manslaughter, something that I couldn’t imagine how miserable she must have felt. She had just lost an arm and the use of her left eye, and then was being charged with the death of a rival.

This time she was going to be at the witness block for defending me.

  
  


For the next week, I woke up in the middle of the night from nightmares that shoved me back to when Gamzee was having his way with me, beating me, telling me that I was nothing. Sometimes I woke up screaming and woke up Vriska, who would scrambled to try and calm me down. She learned the first time that she tried to hug me that touching me was a bad plan.

Every night was the same thing, and I got no sleep because of it.

 

It was Tuesday.

It was the day.

We had to look nice for court of course, so I wore a teal dress shirt, black skinny jeans, and red boots. I was working on pulling a brush through my hair, yanking on the tangles from having tossed and turned in my sleep from the nightmares, when I stopped and stared at myself dead in the eyes.

When I had first looked at myself in the mirror I had all but pressed my face to my reflection to look at my skin, my nose, my mouth, and finally my eyes. 

They were pale blue, as Vriska had said, and they had scars all over the place, but I could see out of them now. 

Now I stared at myself in the eyes and saw the dark circles under my eyes. I saw the veins that filled the whites of my bloodshot eyes. I saw how the skin around my eyes looked red from my rubbing at them while sobbing in the middle of the night. 

“Are you okay?” I jumped and turned to find Vriska standing there, head slightly tilted to the side. Her hair draped over her shoulder, which was clad in a dark blue overshirt that she wore over a black tank top. When I shook my head, her lips turned down in a concerned frown and she stepped forward, took the brush out of my hand, and started brushing my hair. She hummed as she brushed, not saying anything.

She wasn’t good at comforting. She tried, but she wasn’t good at it. So instead of speaking, she’s started doing little things to try and make me feel better. Like brushing my hair for example. A weight on my chest lifted a little, which meant a lot.

I rubbed and eye when she finished and looked up at her, “Thank you.”

She shrugged, “Feel any better?”

“A little.”

She smiled a little and leaned forward to kiss my forehead. She pulled my into a hug that was just a little too tight, and I knew that she was worried.

It was so unlike her to  _ show _ that she was worried. She didn’t show anything but arrogance, but when it’s just us she’s got a softer side. She shows a side that shows remorse, shows care and worry. 

She’s honest with me, unlike everyone else.

“You’ll be fine,” she muttered, resting her chin on the top of my head. “The only thing you have to worry about is me not slaughtering the fucker at the defense table.”

I shrugged slightly, “The defense attorney is going to rip me to shreds, tear apart my character and try to make me look like an awful person.”

“Oh I know, and you’re strong and can stand up for yourself. I’ll also be standing up for you remember? It’ll be fine, and if you need an anchor just look for me in the back. I’ll be there, you know that,” she said, running her hand through my now tangle free hair. 

“I’ll do that, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, now let’s go. Your mom texted me before I came over here to say that she was here.”

I nodded and we headed downstairs to meet with my mother and sister at the entrance. 

 

“Do you, Terezi Pyrope, solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

“I swear.”

My head was swimming and everything sounded far away as I stepped up to the witness stand. I barely managed to keep a flat face when the District Attorney walked up. I had spoken to her before the hearing started for a few minutes. She had explained that she was on my side and was going to do everything she could to put Makara behind bars. She also told me that being questioned on either side wasn’t going to be pleasant. Everyone was staring at me, and that alone wasn’t pleasant.

She looked me straight in the eyes and suddenly I wished I was still blind, “For the record, could you state for the court your attacker and abuser?”

“Gamzee Makara.”

“Thank you. Normally we have victims point, but you were blind at the time, yes?”

“Correct,” I wished that I still was at this point. Gamzee sat at the defense table, and the only reason I knew it was him was because of where he sat and the prison issue clothing that he wore. I never knew what he looked like, so this was the first time that I was seeing the mass of curly black hair on the top of his head and his thin gangly form. He looked like he didn’t eat, thin and ghastly. 

“Now, when did the first incident occur Miss Pyrope?”

I took a deep breath, but it didn’t feel like any of the air reached my lungs. I was shaking already, despite me digging my nails into my palms, “My freshman year of high school. We had started dating and about a week later we were at his house and, well, were kissing a bit. Then he was trying to push for something more than that… and he wasn’t taking no for an answer.”

I took another useless deep breath, and then another. Logically I knew I was having a panic attack, but that knowledge was not clearing my head in the slightest. The District Attorney was still watching me, and the jury, the spectators, everyone was staring at me. 

“What happened then Miss Pyrope?” the District Attorney asked, which brought me out of my head for a moment. The memory of the event was coursing through my head, making me remember everything to the point where I could almost feel myself being violated again and again.

“He, well, stripped me of anything I had been wearing without my consent, and had his way with me without my consent.”

I searched the back of the courtroom for Vriska and when I saw her I could see the homicidal rage on her face. Had this been a back alley, Gamzee would be done for.

The DA nodded, “For the record, could you clarify what you mean by him ‘having his way with you’?”

There was no air in here.

“He…”

Everything was far away, I don’t think I’d ever had a panic attack this badly before.

“Forcefully held me down by my throat….”

My hand seemed to reach up to rest on my throat on it’s own accord, the ghost of the pain echoing there. I was wheezing at this point, there was a reason I  _ didn’t think about this shit. _

The DA nodded for me to continue, everyone was staring at me, and I spat the words out with a wheeze, “He forcefully had sex with me without my consent.”

My eyes darted to where my family and Vriska were seated. My mother had a look of blind rage on her face. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that angry in my entire sighted portions of life, granted that wasn’t a very long time considering I was 20 years old. She had the look of a protective mother bear, or mother dragon possibly. If it wasn’t for conflict of interest, Gamzee would be  _ fucked. _

Latula looked shocked for a moment before looking angry herself. She wasn’t an angry person until someone was bullying her nerdy boyfriend of three years, Mituna Captor. I saw the muscles in her arms tense and I figured that she was clenching her fists.

Vriska looked like she was plotting a bloody  _ homicide. _ She wasn’t looking at me, so I couldn’t clearly see her rage-twisted face, but I could tell by her body language (which I’ve gotten really good at reading) that if she could get away with it, they wouldn’t find Makara’s body.

I looked back at the DA, who was saying something I couldn’t hear, and doubled over, one hand on the barrier between me and the rest of the courtroom so I didn’t fall and hit my face on it. I was really dizzy and was still wheezing. I have never panicked this badly, and I hated it. I hated the fact that it was happening in  _ public _ . I hated the fact that it was happening  _ in front of my rapist. _

I barely heard the judge call for a recess, and when I looked up I saw Vriska already halfway down the aisle with my mother and sister at her heels. 

The DA came around and told me that they were going to take a short break and that I should come back to her office just as Latula got to me and helped me down from the stand, saying, “Hey girl, breathe, breathe. I know it’s hard but you gotta breathe girly. In and out, even if it’s hard.”

Damn right it was hard.

Vriska got there next, concern written all over her face, and I managed to slowly get out of Latula’s loose grasp and pull Vriska to me so I could bury myself into her collarbones. She held me loosely, which I appreciated even though I was clinging to her for dear life, and rubbed slow circles into my shoulders. 

I felt Mom rest her hand on my shoulder, saying, “Shh Terezi, you’re okay. He can’t hurt you anymore. He’s literally handcuffed to the table while he’s in here, which currently he’s not. Though, if this were my case he’d never see the light of day again.  _ No one hurts my child, especially in that sort of manner. _ ”

Latula was running a hand through my hair as I slowly, and do I mean slowly, started feeling like I could breathe again. She shooshed me quietly, saying, “I didn’t know it was that bad sis, and I see why you didn’t say anything. It’s okay now though, he can’t hurt you anymore.”

Vriska hummed a tune that she had taken up humming while trying to calm me down from the nightmares. It was a tune that reminded me of pirates, which suited her well.

When I could stand again, we made our way to the District Attorney’s office. Latula guided me with a hand on my back near my shoulders, Vriska having taken my left hand in her right one, and Mom leading us. She did know this building inside and out after all.

The DA was sitting at her desk when we came in. She looked up when we arrived and smiled softly at us, “You did really well Terezi, some victims go nonverbal when testifying so it’s very good that you were able to answer the question.”

I nodded slowly and she offered me a red lollipop, “Here, your mother told me you liked cherry so I have some suckers for you.”

I smiled faintly and took the lollipop, unwrapping it and popping it into my mouth, “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” the DA smiled. Her desk tag said her name was Amelia Jones, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t known her name despite my meetings with her.

The recess ended far too soon for my liking and before I knew it, I was back at the witness stand with Vriska now at the plaintiff's table and my mother and sister among the spectators.

The worst was over for now, or so I hoped. Admitting that I had been taken advantaged of in such a way while breaking down was the worst. I was a Pyrope and Pyropes don’t show emotion. I was failing that now.

Amelia stepped forward again, looking as put together as a tower of Legos, and asked, “Tell the people of the jury what happened after he raped you Miss Pyrope.”

I flinched. I had been trying so hard to not think that word. Thinking it made it real. The stabbing pain in my chest told me that it was real, and I didn’t want it to be,

I stared at the barrier that divided me from the rest of the courtroom and forced myself to speak above a whisper, “He got off me, told me how much he loved me, told me how lucky I was that he’d choose me to sleep with, how I was such a good girl, and that I was the best he’s ever had.”

It made me sick to think that he had done this to other girls. That was another thought I had shoved aside. I was nauseous at this point, but I was still stuck at this stand.

The DA nodded, “What day did this occur? Do you remember?”

How could I forget? I tried to sound strong and to keep my voice level as I spoke, but the panic and despair that was washing over me in waves wouldn’t allow it, “December 24th 2008.”

“Did this ever occur after that?” she asked firmly.

“Any time I was over there,” I said bitterly. I considered the twinge of bitterness a victory over everything else I was feeling.

My emotions were making everything hurt; my chest, my head, my stomach was threatening mutiny and my hands felt like they were getting poked with pins and needles. I almost didn’t hear Amelia ask, “How long did this go on for?”

I adjusted my glasses, which had started to slide down my nose, “Ninth grade through freshman year of college.”

“For the record, how many years was that?”

“Five.”

“Miss Pyrope, were there any other things that the defendant did to you?”

This, somehow, was easier to answer, “He’d beat me if I ever disagreed with him, or acted out of line in his line of thinking. That wasn’t hard to do, and hiding my bruises got easy too.”

“Were you ever hospitalized for any injuries?”

“Many times, but he came up with excuses every time. I don’t think anyone thought anything of it,” I became quiet at the end, exhausted.

“No further questions.”

I slumped back in the chair, exhaustion overwhelming me. It wasn’t over yet. 

 

The defense attorney rose from the table and walked in front of me. His name was Andrew, and if I was in a better emotional place I would have snickered at the fact that both attorneys had names that started with an A.

“Miss Pyrope, for the record, did you, at all, state that you were interested in sex with my client?” he asked coolly, and that’s what told me that for a fact this was going to be even worse than the last round of questions.

I forced myself to shove myself upright to look him dead in the eyes, “No, I didn’t. I never did once say that I was interested in that. I was 15!”

He nodded slowly, “Alright, when the alleged incident occurred, did you in any way give him the impression that you would be interested?”

I narrowed my eyes, “Could you clarify what you mean?”

“I mean did you make any advancements to indicate that you would be interested in sexual activity?”

“No, every advancement was on his end and he wasn’t taking no for an answer,” I felt anger bubbling up to join the panic and agony that was ripping apart my insides. How dare he!

He nodded again, looking completely indifferent. I knew attorney’s were supposed to do that, but it only made me feel even more sick.

“Over the course of those years that the alleged crimes took place, did you ever give him permission? Did you ever give him signals that would indicate that it was okay?” he inquired.

I glared at him, “It was either say yes or get beaten unconscious. You tell me.”

“I need a yes or no answer Miss Pyrope.”

“Yes, I did, but only to save my own skin.”

“So you gave your consent? Did you the first time also?”

“No! I know the law almost as well as you do, it’s not consent if you’re threatened in any shape way or form,” I growled. My mother was a prosecutor, he should know that I know the law well.

“Okay. Also, were you wearing any sort of provocative clothing at all?” Andrew asked.

“Objection!” Amelia interjected. “Irrelevant!”

“Sustained, the question is completely irrelevant,” the judge informed the defense attorney.

He nodded, “Moving on. For the record, you gave us permission to see your medical history correct?”

“Correct,” I had no idea where he was going with this.

“Every reasoning given for injury were very plausible, there is no evidence to support the claim that he injured you during those five years.”

“That’s because he was  _ lying! _ ” I spat. I was exhausted, upset, and angry at this point. I just wanted to go back to the dorm and scrub the disgusting feeling that was crawling over my skin.

“What evidence do you have to support that?”

I sputtered to a stop, was silent for a moment, and then spoke softly, “Beyond my own word? None. He was good at keeping me quiet, otherwise we would have been in this courtroom a long time ago.”


	13. Vriska: Testify

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for bulimia/purging.

I couldn’t remember the defense attorney questioning Terezi at all. I vaguely remembered the DA yell, “Objection!” but the rest was lost in a red haze of utter rage.

_ He did  _ **_WHAT_ ** _ to her? _

I sat on the bench, my hand clenching the edge of my seat so hard I was surprised the bench wasn’t cracked, churning with homicidal fury. I was going to fucking kill him. I was going to cut him up into eight by eight bits and feed him to my tarantulas back home. I was going to fucking murder him. I would find myself back in this courtroom being tried for homicide and I would blatantly tell him that  _ he fucking deserved it for what he did to her. _

Next thing I knew, Amelia was shaking my shoulder, telling me that it was my time to go up to the witness stand. Terezi was shakily stepping down, rubbing her eyes. I couldn’t touch her, not right now. After this was over, I was going to bury her in blankets and make sure she was warm, comfortable, and okay.

I had to take several deep breaths to clear my head. I stood by the witness stand and turned to face the officer, who brought over a Bible. There was no point to that, I didn’t believe in God anyway.

“Do you, Vriska Serket, solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

“I swear.”

I stepped up to the block and gave my best death glare in Gamzee’s direction. If I could get my hands on him, he’d have been ripped into eight pieces by now. I would tear him apart with my bare hands.

“Miss Serket, would you please identify your attacker for the court?” The DA asked.

I angrily threw my arm up and pointed at Makara, glaring at him.

“Miss Serket, please explain to the court what happened on the night of September 8th 2013,” the DA instructed.

“I was trying to sleep, minding my own business, when I heard someone pounding on my door. I wasn’t having much luck sleeping anyway, but it was aggravating. I yelled what did they want and Terezi yelled back that she was running for her life. I opened the door and pulled her in, demanding an explanation to who was chasing her. She explained that it was her ex, Gamzee Makara,” I spat his name. 

“I offered to defend her, and she told me that he always carries juggling pins. I, uh, explained that I had a switchblade. Gamzee yelled through the door that he just wanted to talk to her and wasn’t going to hurt her. Terezi yelled ‘yeah right.’ He yelled back for us to let him in. We yelled no and he started trying to break down the door, which I know you have pictures of the damage. I yelled that I was going to stab him if he broke my door. Terezi, after a small argument with me, opened the door and punched him. 

“He then slammed his pin down on her shoulder, breaking it. I ran out, held my knife up and yelled at him. He then broke my arm. Terezi hit him with her cane, and I stabbed in in the leg. He slammed his pin on my head, which  _ hurt _ , and I got really dizzy, and when Kanaya Maryam showed up he ran and Terezi went after him. Then I don’t remember anything and I passed out.”

Amelia nodded, “Would you say you were acting in your and Terezi’s defense?”

“Oh yeah, he was going to seriously hurt her and I was not going to let that happen,” I stated, finally tearing my gaze from my glare to look at the DA.

“Did you think your life was in danger?”

“Her’s more than mine, but I’m pretty sure that mine was when my head got smashed in.”

She nodded before turning and walking back to the plaintiff’s table, “No further questions.”

I cracked my knuckles, that was short. I did give enough details though, or so I thought. I was starting to come down from uncontrollable rage to a more manageable level of fury. There was a small, traitorous part of me trying to come up that yelled that  _ she got hurt, her shoulder broke because you didn’t stop her from going out there  _ **_he hurt her._ **

I shoved that part down, now was not the time to feel guilt.

The defense attorney stepped up to question me. He looked indifferent, which told me that either he was really good at his job or that he didn’t care what happened to his client.

“Miss Serket, why was it that you had a switchblade on your person?” he asked simply.

“In case I was walking out at night and some unfortunately idiot tried to jump me.”

“Are you aware that switchblades are illegal?”

“Yeah, and so is jumping people.”

He shook his head, “Why did you feel the need to stab my client?”

“Oh I don’t know, he was trying to kill my friend!” I snapped. I had had enough with this entire trial and it had just started. They were only questioning Terezi, Kanaya and I today, thank whatever deity available, and after the defense attorney finishes with me we’re done for the day, but I was still 800% done.

“What gave you the impression that he was trying to kill her?” he asked.

“He was yelling at her, and then when I refused to let him in he started hitting my door with a juggling pin,” I deadpanned. “That seemed pretty clear to me that he was going to hurt her, and Terezi had told me that he had made death threats before.” I really just wanted to take Terezi and go back to the dorm. 

“Do you think that it’s possible that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind?”

Where was he going with this? Was he aiming for a not guilty by reasons of insanity verdict? I stared at him before answering, “I don’t think anyone is in the right frame of mind to try and kill someone.”

He nodded a few times before speaking again, “Were you in the right frame of mind when the accident that took the life of Aradia Megido occurred?”

My blood ran cold.

“Objection!” Amelia yelled somewhere far away. “Irrelevant!”

“Overruled, continue,” I barely heard the judge say.

“Or when you pushed Tavros Nitram in front of a car?”

I didn’t speak. The anger I had been feeling gone, the guilt I had been suppressing coming up to overtake me. I thought I was going to be sick, resulting in me not opening my mouth until I was sure I would keep all of my stomach acid down.

“Both of those were accidents. I was found not guilty with Aradia, and with Tavros I was just messing with him and a car came out of nowhere. Neither of those were my fault,” I choked out, speaking slowly.

“The record states that you were speeding and not wearing a seatbelt when the accident with Miss Megido occurred, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Would you think that those were good decisions?”

“No…”

“Then why did you choose to do them?”

“I was late…” I wasn’t going to cry, there was no way I was going to cry here. “I was running late and I needed to get there and I didn’t see her until it was too late…”

“Would you say that speeding and not wearing your seatbelt were good decisions?”

“No.”

“Would you say that having a switchblade and stabbing my client were good decisions?”

“Objection!” Amelia yelled through gritted teeth. “He’s leading the witness.”

“Sustained.”

Andrew, the defense attorney, nodded and turned to the jury, “People of the jury, I ask you to consider Miss Serket’s character and decision making skills before taking her testimony into account. No further questions, thank you.”

I rose to my feet and walked back to the plaintiff’s table, crushing my nails into my palms the entire walk back. I felt the blood well up onto my fingertips, and I didn’t care. My veins were full of ice and I was 800% sure I was going to be sick.

The judge called for another recess and without much warning I jumped to my feet and bolted for the bathroom. Upon arrival I slammed the stall shut and shoved my fingers down my throat and coughed up all the acid in my stomach. I wasn’t about to sit there gagging, I just wanted it to be over with. Plus, no one ever knows how much my throat is used to stomach acide coming up it.

I only would force myself to throw up after every meal when I was in high school.

I heard someone come in over the sound of me losing the contents of my stomach, and when I finished, coughing up the last of it, I heard a faint knock on the stall door.

“Are you alright?” Terezi’s voice came from the other side, sounding uncharacteristically small.

I coughed again, spat in the toilet, flushed it, and sighed, “Yeah, I am now at least.”

I felt a lot better actually, which was probably bad but like hell did I care. I never told anyone about this, and I never did it unless I was really upset. A Serket must keep herself composed of course, so I did what I could to keep myself that way. This was how I kept myself from having emotions. The empty feeling in my stomach afterward helped me keep myself from feeling anything at all.

I shakily rose to my feet and wiped my mouth on some toilet paper, numbed up. I opened the stall door to find a paler than normal Terezi standing there, shaking. I opened my arms and she shook her head, taking a step back. I dropped my arms, “Are you doing alright?”

She shook her head, looking away. A little twinge of rage flared up at the knowledge that she was suffering.

“Come on, let’s find your mom and Latula, we just have Kanaya’s testimony to sit through and then we can go home,” I said softly, tilting my head into her line of sight. I had grown accustomed to her being able to see again, a few months ago I wouldn’t have even bothered moving my head at all.

Her eyes turned back up to look at me and she nodded, turning to walk out of the bathroom. She was dragging her feet behind her, and her hands were in her pockets. She was a little slouched, which was abnormal for her, and her head was turned toward the ground.

I sped up my pace until I was walking next to her and gave her a worried glance before Latula bounded up to us. 

“Are you two okay?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowed. Her mom was coming up a few steps behind her, who then asked the same question.

“I’m fine,” I said before coughing again and gesturing to Terezi. “It’s this one who isn’t.”

She made a noncommittal noise and said nothing. Latula reached over and put her hand on her younger sister’s shoulder, and Terezi jumped and all but threw herself backward, her eyes wide. Latula flinched in response.

I threw my right arm between the two of them, “Don’t touch her right now, it won’t help.”

Latula nodded slowly, “Sorry girly, I didn’t know.”

Terezi didn’t move for a second before exhaling, “It’s fine.”

Ms. Pyrope looked at her daughters with worry, “It’s almost time to go back to the courtroom, are any of you hungry?”

No thank you, I would just have to bring it back up anyway. 

“I’m good,” I said, which got a strange look from Latula.

“You’re always down for food though,” she asked quizzically. 

I shrugged, “Not after that testimony I’m not.” Not exactly a lie.

She nodded, “I’m not really into the idea of eating right now either honestly.”

Terezi didn’t speak, but we all knew her answer. Ms. Pyrope nodded slowly before ushering us back to the courtroom, saying, “Maybe afterward then, and maybe we could all go home and watch a movie or relax.”

As if I could relax after this.


	14. Terezi: Go back to the dorm

Kanaya’s testimony was a lot shorter, especially since she only had to answer questions about the attack she intervened. I was surprised they didn’t ask me anything about it, but I suppose they would ask me them before Gamzee’s testimony at a later date. They would inform Vriska and I the date when it was set, and she was expected to attend, even though she wouldn’t have to testify again.

Hopefully, she looked like she was going to murder someone while being questioned.

I felt numb, unnaturally jumpy, anxious, and somewhat depressed. I felt like my skin was crawling with filth that I needed to scrub off, but I couldn’t shower yet. We were going back to Mom and Latula’s house so we could relax for awhile. Though, I guess I could ask to shower there.

I shuffled down the steps in front of the courthouse toward the parking lot behind Latula and Vriska, who were led by Mom. Vriska would occasionally look behind her to make sure I was still here, which I was but not at the same time.

Mentally I was reliving what happened over and over and over again.

I climbed into the backseat of the car next to Vriska, whose hand I grabbed as soon as our seatbelts were clicked into place. She looked at me quizzically for a moment before giving my hand a quick squeeze.

The drive back to Mom’s house was quiet. No one really spoke, not even Vriska. Vriska still looked really pale and a little green around the edges, so it wasn’t super surprising that she was quiet, but it was unnatural. 

Normally she’d try to stir up trouble or conversation to keep herself from being bored, but I don’t think she’s bored right now.

We reached our destination and all made our way inside. I tripped over a rock, which was something that never happened with me. I guess I still wasn’t fully accustomed to not having a cane to tell me what was on the ground.

Latula gave me a concerned look from the doorway, “You alright girl?”

I shrugged and followed her inside, all but throwing myself on the couch and curling up in a blanket I found crumpled into a pile on the couch. It was warm, and I felt like ice from the inside out.

Vriska came over and sat by me while Latula went up to her room, calling, “I’m gonna grab a movie!”

I hope she knew that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate on it.

“How are you holdin’ up?” Vriska asked quietly, brushing my bangs out of my face.

I shrugged again, “I’m cold.”

“Are you okay with hugging right now?”

I was blown away by her asking permission, but appreciated it all the same, “Yeah.”

She pulled me into her arms, blanket and all, tucked my head under her chin, and held me tightly. “Good, because I’m gonna keep you warm.”

I almost smiled.

Latula came downstairs with a movie she borrowed from her boyfriend, Mituna. It was  _ The Matrix _ , which I haven’t seen yet. I’ve seen a lot of movies since regaining my sight, but that wasn’t one of them.

Mom came in shortly thereafter with popcorn that was barely eaten, but she also brought hot chocolate which was greatly appreciated, it helped warm me up.

After the movie ended Latula looked up from her phone and smiled, “I’m gonna be going over to Mituna’s for the night dudes, I’ll be back tomorrow. Will ya’ still be here sis?”

I looked over at the clock, it was already six in the evening, “Not likely, I honestly just want a hot shower and sleep right now.”

She nodded and gave a sad smile, “Well feel better than girly, you’ll be okay.”

“Thanks, tell Sollux I said hi,” I couldn’t even bring myself to try and return the smile.

“Will do!” She said before looking solemn, “I’ll also keep the part about Vriska being involved in Aradia’s dead quiet, I don’t think Sollux knows who was driving the other car when she died.”

“Thank you,” I spoke in a hushed tone, in which Latula nodded and headed out, telling Mom that she’d be back tomorrow.

Vriska, who ended up under the blanket with me, nuzzled her head into my neck. She was falling asleep, having been bored by the movie and tired from the long day. I was starting to doze too, but I still felt like I was covered in a layer of grime and needed to shower it off.

Mom walked in and noted that we were practically asleep on her couch, “Do you guys want to head back to Skaia? You both look like you need a night’s rest. Do you have class tomorrow?”

“We’ve got excused absences for tomorrow,” Vriska mumbled. “Even if we didn’t I wouldn’t go, wouldn’t let ‘Rezi go either.”

I sighed and mom facepalmed, “Okay, well why don’t I drive you two back. You look dead to the world and I’m sure you need some time to yourselves.”

I gave a small nod and Vriska hummed an affirmative, sitting up. 

The drive back was quiet, Vriska falling asleep on my shoulder in the backseat and my lack of desire to speak.

We arrived and Mom reminded me that she’s just a phone call away if we needed anything, and it made my heart feel lighter knowing that Mom cared about Vriska’s wellbeing as well.

Said woman was falling asleep standing up though, in which Mom snickered, “Go get her in bed Terezi before she falls asleep again.”

I nodded, “Will do, bye Mom.”

“Bye ‘Rezi, feel better,” Mom had the most soothing voice when she wanted to use it, and now was one of those times. “I’ll come get you guys this weekend so we can do something that’s fun instead of serious.”

I smiled as she drove off before I helped Vriska up the stairs, who was waking up a little but still half awake. She was really tired.

When we got up to the room she was lucid enough to be considered awake and had an almost pained look on her face. She unlocked the door and walked in, turning on the lights as I shut the door behind us.

I turned, walked up to my girlfriend, spun her around and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. She returned it, burying her face in my shoulder.

“I never want to do that again,” I breathed.

“I know,” she nuzzled her head. “Your last testimony will hopefully be short.”

I nodded, not saying any more for a moment, “All of their faces, I could see all of their faces and I could see them all  _ staring at me _ and it made it so much worse.”

“I know,” she mumbled. “Don’t look at them next time, stare at the floor or find me or look at me. Don’t focus on them.”

I nodded again, “Are you still mad?”

“Furious actually, I’m going to fucking  _ murder _ that clown.”

I shook my head, pressing a kiss to the side of her head, “I meant about the defense attorney trying to make you look unreliable.”

She tensed for a moment before almost sagging in my arms, her voice dropping in volume, “I’m mad about it yeah, it was unrelated and irrelevant, but it also wasn’t exactly something I needed to hear about at that point in time.”

I nodded and we didn’t say anything for awhile. I rocked back and forth on my feet and we swayed back and forth. After a minute or so Vriska broke the silence, “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” I hummed miserably.

“Think of it this way,” I could hear the grin in her voice even if I couldn’t see her face. “At his sentencing I’m gonna spit on him, and probably throw my knife at him.”

I snorted, the first remotely close to a laugh I have made all day, “I don’t think throwing knives are appropriate behavior in a courtroom Vriska.”

“Does it look like I give a shit?”

I gave a small laugh, “I guess not.”

Vriska turned her head and planted kisses in my hair behind my ear, humming. I still felt gross, but I was relaxing a little. 

“I feel like I’m covered in grime,” I muttered. “I need a shower, but I don’t wanna let you go.”

She nuzzled her head again and rubbed circles into my shoulders, “Shower, then we could cuddle up on either bed?”

“Did you miss the ‘I don’t want to let you go’ part?” I rolled my eyes.

“No I didn’t, but unless you want me to shower with you to get the grime-y feeling off, then you’re gonna have to.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be completely  _ opposed _ to that.”

I felt her grin from where she was kissing my head, “Come on then.”

“That means I have to let you go doesn’t it?”

“Only for a few minutes,” she assured, letting go and walking into the bathroom to start the water.

I followed her in there, shutting the door behind me, and turned in time to see Vriska stand back up, take her glasses off, and set them on the counter. It was still weird to see her without her glasses, but it wasn’t unpleasant. Her jacket and shirt were already on the floor near the door, so she was just standing in a sports bra now. She was a very beautiful sight, and I’m glad I could see her.

She looked over at me and smiled softly, “Come on, you’re too far away.”

I smiled at her and walked over to pull her into my arms. I nuzzled my head into her neck and she hummed again. She ran her hands lightly along my back up and down, kissing my head over and over.

“I’m cold,” I mumbled. 

“The shower is warm, why don’t we actually get  _ in _ the shower?” Vriska snickered.

I rolled my eyes and let go walking over to the counter to set my glasses down and pull my shirt over my head and toss onto the floor with the rest of my clothing following suit. I felt exposed, but a little more comfortable knowing that it was Vriska who was with me, not Gamzee.

I turned back around and could barely make out the details of my girlfriend’s form as she stepped into the shower. I followed suit, and I could make out more details with her up close.

She opened her arms and pulled me to her before turning us around so she could run her hands through my hair and soak it, “I’m going to wash you up okay?”

“‘Mmkay,” I hummed, her fingers going through my hair felt nice. “Why are you being so nice? It’s not like you.”

“Because I love you and I want you to be happy, unlike the rest of the human race,” she mumbled before kissing my jaw. 

When she succeeded in soaking my hair, I tilted my head forward and pulled my arms back from where they had been draped over her shoulders and pulled her face to mine so I could kiss her properly. I wanted her close because even fully exposed like this in the shower she still felt safe to me. She seemed more concerned with making sure I was clean than anything else. 

She hummed and disconnected herself from the kiss, “Tilt your head back so I can wash your hair.”

It was not like her to be so nice, but she honestly did care. I can smell her deceit a mile away, and I couldn’t smell any deceit now. 

I couldn’t help but think that if her mother and sister weren’t bitches than she would have been a better person. Maybe she’d still have the her ambition and drive to do what she wants, but she probably would have been nicer to people.

She told me that her upbringing was why she acted the way she did to others, but didn’t really elaborate on how she grew up. She didn’t like talking about it, so after awhile I stopped prying.

She leaned over to grab my shampoo and massaged a small amount of the contents into my hair, which was so soothing that I couldn’t help but shut my eyes and hum my approval.

Vriska pressed kisses to my jaw and washed out the suds from my hair before replacing it with conditioner. She massaged my scalp and kissed all over my face before I tilted my head down to kiss her again.

She rinsed out my hair again and grabbed the bottle of body wash and the teal shower sponge-y thing that I don’t actually know the name of. She gently rubbed the sponge over my arms and legs, torso and back, and then massaged the soap on my neck with her own fingers. She rested her forehead against mine, her eyes closed, and hummed. 

My eyes fluttered shut, my muscles much more relaxed than they had been before we had climbed into the shower.

I had never showered with her before, and before today I would have expected it to go sexual, not soothing. I was becoming drowsy from the warmth of the shower and the neck massage that I was getting.

“Feeling better at all?” Vriska murmured, tracing a circle on one side of my neck while still massaging the other side.

“Mmmhmmm,” I hummed. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it, I opened my eyes to find her smiling. “Seriously, don’t mention it.”

I started snickering, “I wouldn’t dream of it, you’d kill me.”

“Damn right.”

I burst out laughing, which made her laugh too.

I bumped my head against hers, “I love you you sap.”

“I am not a sap! But I love you too.”

“Not a sap my ass!”

“Shut up!”

We laughed until the water ran cold.

 


	15. Terezi: Witness Gamee's testimony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright guys, sorry this took so long I've been having some mental health issues and haven't been able to write for the life of me. This is the last chapter I have done for now, and I'm probably going to go on a small hiatus for Camp NaNoWriMo. I'll be back soon I promise!!

“Do you, Terezi Pyrope, solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?”

“I swear.”

I took the stand again, this time to be questioned on the night that Gamzee chased me across campus, broke my shoulder, and fractured Vriska’s skull.

I was nauseous with anxiety, even though I figured that this wouldn’t be as bad as it was the last time I had to testify. Recalling running for my life didn’t hurt as much.

Amelia came forward, looking just as composed as she had before, “So tell me Miss Pyrope, what exactly happened on the night you were attacked?”

“I was walking back to my dorm from class when I walked right into someone, which was completely unusual because I usually know when someone is near me, and when he spoke I knew it was Gamzee. He wanted to talk and he threatened to carry out his former threat to kill me, so I ran toward my dorm.

“I managed to get there and shut the door before he got there and got to the elevator before he broke the glass on the door. I remembered where Vriska’s room was and it was closer to the elevator than my room was, so I went there.

“I pounded on her door until she answered, yelling that I was running for my life, and she pulled me inside just as Gamzee got to our floor. I told her what was going on at the current moment, which was that he was trying to kill me, and she pulled out her switchblade as a method of self defense.

“He was trying to break down the door with his juggling pins because we wouldn’t let him in, and eventually I just decided to go out and face him because he  _ was _ going to eventually break down the door and I didn’t want Vriska to get hurt. So despite her protests I went out, he stopped attacking the door, and I punched him in the chest to get him away from me.

“He rebounded off the wall, broke my shoulder with a pin, and Vriska shoved past me to threaten him in my defense. He egged her on and when she went to attack him he broke her non-robotic arm. I jabbed him in the face with my cane, I heard him go to hit me again when he cried out from the pain of being stabbed. Gamzee then fractured Vriska’s skull with a pin, I yelled at him, hit him in the head with my cane a few more times, he went to hit me again but Kanaya intervened at that point. The rest after that is mostly a blur.”

“Miss Pyrope, your records do indicate that your shoulder was broken by a blunt force, this was by a juggling pin of Mr. Makara’s correct?”

“Correct.”

“How did you know that it was a juggling pin that he hit you with?” she asked simply.

“I’ve held them before, and I know the sound that they make when they hit things. They’re also one of the only things he carries around with him.”

“Thank you, no further questions.”

I didn’t sag back this time, I sat straight and dug my nails into my other fingers nervously. The slight pain from it helped clear my head.

The defense attorney walked up and took Amelia’s place, looking impassive and uncaring, “Miss Pyrope, were there anything said to trigger his attack?”

“No?” I had an eyebrow lifted, wondering where the hell he was going with this. “I asked why he was here, that’s it.”

“Did he loo- I mean sound like he was in his right mind?”

“Glad to know you forgot I was blind at the time, and no he didn’t,” I spoke irritably, it had been blatantly stated that I only recently regained my vision.

“My apologies. Now, did he ever sound, dare I say, sane?”

“Honestly? No.”

“No further questions.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose and rose to my feet when I was dismissed. I took my place next to Vriska at the plaintiff’s table, irritated and tired. 

 

Gamzee swore under oath and stepped up to the stand. I had never known what he looked like before, but it still made me nauseous to see him. This wasn’t the first time since this trial started that I wished I was still blind.

I held onto Vriska’s hand, squeezing it. I was on her right side so I could feel her skin, even though it probably would have been better for her circulation if I had been on her left side. She didn’t seem to care though, squeezing my hand back as best as possible with the vice grip I had on her’s. 

“Gamzee Makara,” Amelia began, sounding cold. “Where were you the night of December 24th 2008?”

“With my girlfriend at my house,” he drawled.

“For the record, who was that?”

“Terezi Pyrope, she’s over there,” Gamzee pointed my direction and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to cringe. His gaze was edging more on a glare and it made me even more nauseous. I squeezed Vriska’s hand again.

Amelia nodded slowly, “Alright, and what were you two doing that night?”

“Just gettin’ our touchin’ and feelin’ on if memory wants to show me right.”

“Did she give you permission for you to touch her?”

He looked contemplative, “I think so, she usually did.”

“What do you mean by usually?”

“I remember most of the time she let me, I would have to convince her sometimes though,” he shrugged.

The DA shook her head, “Did you have sex with her?”

Another shrug, “Yeah.”

“Did she give you permission for that?”

An uneasy silence fell while we waited for him to respond. He looked really uncomfortable, shifting in his seat and his eyes looking from one end of the courtroom to the other.  _ Good _ .

“I honestly don’t remember sis,” he muttered just loud enough for those in the front rows to hear.

“You don’t remember,” Amelia enunciated clearly. “Are you saying you don’t remember if she gave you explicit consent to sexual activity? Nevermind that you were both minors?” Amelia was  _ ruthless _ .

Gamzee looked away from her, “Yeah, I don’t remember.”

“Would it cross your mind that there was a possibility that she didn’t give freely given, explicit consent?” 

He didn’t look at her, “Yeah.”

“No further questions.”

Amelia walked back and sat down, and Andrew took her place. He cleared his throat, “Mr. Makara, could you explain to the court what happened on the night of December 24th 2008?”

In retrospect, I think I might have dissociated to some extent, but all I know was at that moment all could hear and feel had to do with what happened that night. I didn’t come back to reality until Vriska had smacked my hand, which had been scratching at the wrist of the hand that was holding hers, hissing, “Stop that! You’re hurting yourself.”

I blinked at her and her concerned face before squeezing her hand again and turning back to the witness stand. Gamzee looked uncomfortable again, which in my book was just a small fraction of a just revenge.

“Please tell the court why you were at Alternian University that night?” Andrew looked completely impassive, like he didn’t care what happened to his client. He probably didn’t.

“I had just transferred,” Gamzee mumbled. “I wanted to get my conversation goin’ with Terezi, but she freaked out.”

“For clarification, what do you mean by, ‘freaked out’?” 

“She all ran away, and I don’t remember much after that.”

“This is the second time you’ve said you don’t remember anything, do you know why you don’t remember? Were you intoxicated at all?”

“Well, sometimes I’ll be gettin’ my daze on, but sometimes I just black out for no whichever reason,” Gamzee was staring at the defense attorney, unblinking. It was unnerving.

“Do you remember anything you do while you’re blacked out Mr. Makara?” Andrew asked.

“No, I don’t have any memory of anything.”

“Are you ever under the influence of any drugs or alcohol when you black out?”

Gamzee looked down at the ground, “No, I’m almost always sober when I black out man.”

Andrew nodded and looked up to the judge, “No further questions Your Honor.”

I zoned out, my grip on Vriska’s hand loosening. It took me awhile of staring into space before I began to realize what the defense attorney was doing. He wasn’t trying to make Gamzee look innocent, he was trying to make it look like he was out of his mind.

Clever bastard, he was aiming for an insanity charge.

Vriska shook me enough to get me out of my daze, just in time to hear the judge ask for a physical examination to look for evidence that I had been indeed raped.

The word echoed wrong in my head. I knew that’s what it was, he raped me for four years, but it sounded wrong to me, like that wasn’t what happened. 

Then it hit me that some stranger was going to have to look at me and poke around at me to look for damage between my legs and I felt all the blood leave my head so fast I got dizzy. 

Vriska looked over at me at the same time that the judge adjourned the hearing and immediately brought her other hand up and brush at the side of my cheek. When did I start crying? I was hyperventilating, they idea of some stranger looking at me and touching me made me want to throw up. 

Vriska shooshed me, “Hey, hey! It’ll be fine, let’s get out of here though.”

Mom and Latula came up to the plaintiff’s table as Amelia finished gathering her paperwork and turned to me, “Hey, Terezi it’ll be okay. Professionals that do these examinations are trained to deal with abuse cases. It’ll be fine.”

I nodded slowly at her, my breathing slowing down. I really need to stop having panic attacks in public.

We left, and a week later I found myself sitting in a waiting room with Vriska at the local medical center. She was tracing circles on the back of my hand, trying to calm me down. I wasn’t hyperventilating yet, but it was only a matter of time honestly. 

“You’ll be okay,” Vriska murmured and brushed some hair out of my face. “And if someone hurts you beyond what can’t be helped I’ll kick their head off their shoulders plain and simple.”

“Heh, I’ll let you know,” I said quietly.

They brought me back, had me change into a hospital gown, and lay down on a table. They pulled these weird leg rest things that looked like they were made of cast iron out from the table and they had me lay down on it.

_ Oh my god that damn table _ .

I got hit with flashback after flashback as the lady looked at me and felt around with a Q-tip, looking for evidence. Everything in my mind’s eye was dark, and I felt like I was being violated again and again. I knew that logically she wasn’t doing it on purpose, she was just doing her job, but it was wrecking me.

I felt like I couldn’t breathe. After what felt like ages I was choking on sobs I refused to let out, and by the time she was done I was holding back screams. 

“You can sit up now honey,” the doctor said. I sat up and curled into a ball, staring at her with dead eyes. 

“I personally think there’s definitely enough evidence to convict him, considering all the scarring. That’s just my opinion, but I’ve seen cases like this before. Come on, get dressed and you can head out,” she said sympathetically. I highly doubt she understands what that all felt like, but I could at least somewhat appreciate the sympathy.

She left and I slowly got dressed. I was brought back to the waiting room by a nurse, and I found Vriska picking at her nails in a chair in the corner. I kept my jaw clamped shut, still unsure if I would scream or not from the phantom feelings of being touched when I didn’t want to be from recent and distant past dancing over my skin, and willed my girlfriend to look up from her nails.

Thankfully, she did and promptly was on her feet and crossing the remaining distance between the two of us. She pulled me into a tight hug and I broke, sobbing into her right shoulder. I gripped at her sleeves and she rubbed my back, shooshing me, “It’s alright, it’s alright. Let it out.”

We stood there for at least five minutes before a receptionist walked over to us and asked us to leave. Vriska guided me back outside to where Mom had just pulled up. Lucky timing.

Mom stepped out of the car and walked over to pull me from Vriska’s arms into her own, “You’re okay ‘Rezi, you’re okay.”

I burst into sobs again. I felt disgusting and vile, like I had swam in mud or something. I didn’t want anyone touching me anymore.

I struggled out of her arms and held myself in a self-hug, shaking my head rapidly when either of the two tried to reach for me again, “No, don’t touch me.”

Mom nodded, and Vriska looked almost pained when she nodded also. I climbed into the back of the car and pulled my knees up so I could rest my head on them. I heard Vriska come in on the other side, and Mom say something to Latula that I didn’t quite catch.

The ride back to campus was near silent.

I said my goodbyes before Vriska and I went upstairs. I almost immediately made my way to the shower, feeling the need to scrub all the filth off my skin. 

An hour later, I was still scrubbing my skin with the shower sponge under cold water when I heard someone, probably Vriska, trying to open the door. She’s done it before, I didn’t mind her coming in here when I was showering, but I had locked the door, so when she realized that she pounded on the door, “Terezi? Are you alright?”

“I can’t get it off,” I somewhat choked up loud enough for her to hear.

“Get what off?” she yelled back.

“The grimy, filthy shame and disgust.”

“What? Let me in ‘Rezi,” she called, trying the door again. I said nothing, and after a moment or two of silence she yelled again, “Come on, it’s not like I’m going to hurt you.”

I twitched and kept scrubbing at my skin. I heard her give one of her dramatic sighs and pick the lock. I don’t want to know where she learned that skill.

She opened the door and walked over to sit on the toilet next to the shower stall, giving me privacy via shower curtain. She didn’t say anything at first, just listened to me scrub at my arms despite them being red and raw by now. Eventually, she broke the silence, “Why are you rubbing your skin raw?”

“I can’t get it off,” I replied, still scrubbing with a pained expression.

“You can’t get a feeling off with soap ‘Rez, it doesn’t work like that,” her voice was soft, something I didn’t hear from her often.

“I feel disgusting and vile, like a film is over my skin with it.”

She sighed, “I can’t even imagine, my mom was a bitch and neglected me and beat me, but she never…”

My heart cracked and broke. Who would ever do such a thing to a child? I could imagine that shaped her behavior and personality now, but she didn’t deserve that.

“But she never did anything like that, this is terrible. This is not nearly as bad,” Vriska finished.

It was about then did I finally realize that the water was freezing cold, that I was uncontrollably shaking from it, that my teeth were chattering almost painfully. I slowly stopped scrubbing my skin, dropped the sponge, turned the water off, and peered out from behind the curtain. 

Vriska was visibly upset, which was unlike her. I almost never see her visibly upset, and I can’t remember the last time I have. I reached over and threaded my fingers through her hair, brushing it with my hand. She leaned into my touch and shut her eyes, “I’m going to murder that clown, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m going to kill him.”

I shrugged, not saying anything. She opened her eyes and gave me a concerned look, “You’re lips are blue Terezi, get out of the shower.”

I nodded, and she grabbed the towel off the top of the shower stall where I had draped it, and wrapped me in it when I stepped out. She held me in her arms, trying to warm me up by rubbing my back. She dried me off and I pulled my sleep clothes on before she guided me out of the bathroom and to her bed, where she wrapped us up in her blankets and her comforter. She held onto me and rubbed at my back and didn’t complain when I tucked my head under her chin, cold, wet hair and all, and we laid there until I fell asleep. I’m guessing she did too, since we woke up together the next morning.


End file.
